HC orders postponement of Central aptitude test
Madurai: The Madras High Court has ordered suspension/postponement of the Kishore Vaigyanik Protsahan Yojana (KVPY) aptitude test, after a PIL was filed saying it was being held only in English and Hindi and not other regional languages.
KVPY is an initiative of the Department of Science and Technology (DST), Government of India, aimed at encouraging students to take up a research career in Science.
Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee and Justice M Duraiswamy issued the order on Monday following the PIL petition which objected to the national programme of fellowship in basic sciences being held only in English and Hindi, on November 7.
Rejecting the Centre's submission about the lack of enough examiners to assess the answers in various Indian languages and that there would be problem in assessing the technical/ scientific words and terminology, the court pointed out it was not the case with countries like Japan or Germany where the learning was in the mother tongue but they had made rapid progress in technical subjects.
The judges asked the Centre to file a counter on what steps were being taken to draft adequate manpower for holding the examination in various Indian languages.
"No aspirant should be disqualified because he did not know Hindi or English. The objective of the programme was to recognise young talent," the bench said.
G Tirumurgan, the petitioner, had filed the PIL complaining that the aptitude test was being held only in Hindi and English.
Directing the Centre to file its counter in two weeks, the court transferred the case for further hearing to the Chennai bench.
