The Uttarakhand High Court (HC) has warned the Public schools that it could initiate legal action and reject their petitions on the issue of the compulsion of National Council of Education Research and Training (NCERT) books if they resort to strike. On Tuesday the single bench of Justice Sudhanshu Dhulia also directed the Chief Secretary of Uttarakhand to file a detailed reply on the issue.
While hearing the petitions on the Government order on compulsion of only NCERT books in all schools barring those affiliated by the ICSE board, the court set up April 11 as date of next hearing.
On Tuesday, the counsel of the CBSE board Shashank Upadhyaya said that the text books of NCER are recognised and authentic so only these books should be implemented in all the schools. He said that the NCERT text books are very popular and the questions papers of all competitive examinations are based on them. Presenting the case of the State Government, the additional Advocate General Pankaj Purohit said that the State Government has not violated the constitution in ordering compulsion of NCERT books.
He said that the Government has made a uniform policy for education. An organisation Knowledge World Majra Dehradun had filed a petition regarding the Government Order (GO) on NCERT books in all Government, Government aided and public schools affiliated by the CBSE board. The GO was released on August 23and in it a ban on usage of books of private publishers was imposed.
The basic reason for issuance of the GO was that in the private schools expensive books of private publishers only are prescribed.
The order mentions that legal action should be initiated against the schools prescribing the books of private publishers.