KATHMANDU, MA 30
The Supreme Court (SC) has issued an interim order in response to a writ petition filed against private schools that prohibits students from using Nepali or their mother tongue on school grounds.
Law students Ayush Badal from Kathmandu University of School of Law, Smriti Adhikari from Kathmandu School of Law, and Bibek Bakhrel from Chakrabarti Law Academy filed a writ petition in the Supreme Court challenging the actions of collecting fines, putting mental pressure on students, and speaking in a derogatory manner merely for speaking in their mother tongue in the premises of private schools.
The Supreme Court issued an interim order and a show cause order in the name of the defendants in the writ petition filed against the Office of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers, the Ministry of Education, Science, and Technology, the Private and Residential School Association of Nepal (PABSON), and the Kathmandu Metropolitan City.
The show cause and interim order was issued on Friday by a single bench led by Justice Sunil Kumar Pokharel, writ petitioner Aayush Badal told THT.
He stated that a writ petition was filed in the Supreme Court seeking justice, alleging that the school is enforcing an 'Only English policy', prohibiting the use of Nepali or other mother tongues, imposing fines for speaking, and exerting mental pressure.
According to him, the act also violated Nepal's constitutionally guaranteed fundamental rights.
The writ petition was filed Tuesday stating that the private school's activities are unconstitutional, illegal, and a dangerous trend towards commercialisation of the education sector, and that any internal policy or verbal directive issued to prohibit the use of Nepali within the school should be immediately revoked.
