3 min readNew DelhiJul 14, 2026 05:50 AM IST
SEEKING TO defend the three-language policy before the Supreme Court, the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) on Monday said 47.3% of the 28,848 schools affiliated with the Board already offer two or more native Indian languages to Class 9 students. They are therefore fully compliant with the three-language policy “without any additional teacher”, while 99.19% have at least one Indian-language teacher.
The figures, disclosed in a counter affidavit filed by CBSE, along with separate affidavits from the Education Ministry and NCERT, constitute the Board’s defence of the policy in response to the litigation by parents and foreign-language teachers. “Recognising that schools may require time to build full teaching capacity in different Bhartiya Bhashas, the Board has permitted flexible staffing arrangements as an interim measure,” CBSE stated.
The petition, filed by parents from Delhi, Gurugram, Noida and Chennai along with teachers, challenges CBSE’s May 15 circular making three languages compulsory in Class 9 from July 1, 2026. It will be heard by the Supreme Court Tuesday.
The petition argues that the circular is unconstitutional, arbitrary and violates Articles 14, 19, 21 and 21A, alleging that it abruptly reversed a CBSE notification issued just 36 days earlier, which stated that “R3 (third language) is not applicable till the academic session 2029-30 at the Class 9 level”.
The petition also contends that schools are being asked to implement the policy without textbooks, teachers or a board assessment framework, forcing students to use Class 6 textbooks and allowing schools to deploy teachers of other subjects with only “functional proficiency” to teach the third language.
CBSE argued that the petition has been overtaken by subsequent developments. It told the court that the June 29 implementation guidelines and the July 10 clarification circular had “addressed” the grievances raised by the petitioners, rendering the principal reliefs sought “unnecessary and infructuous”.
Under the three-language policy, Class 9 students will now study three languages, with at least two being Bhartiya Bhashas. However, as a one-time relaxation, students pursuing two non-native languages (example: English + French) can choose any Bhartiya Bhasha.
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The Board also disputed the central premise of the challenge — that foreign languages are being pushed out of schools. “There is no prohibition on the study of a foreign language,” the affidavit states, adding that a foreign language may continue either as one of the three languages, or as an additional fourth language. It argues that the petition “wrongly presents a conditional retention of foreign languages as an ‘elimination’.”
In another affidavit, NCERT stated that it had already undertaken the preparation, review, vetting, finalisation and dissemination of textbooks in 22 Scheduled Languages as part of the implementation of the third-language framework. NCERT further stated that the ministry has constituted a High-Powered Task Force, in coordination with CBSE, NIOS and academic experts, to expedite the development of textbooks for the transition phase for Class 9.