A Division Bench of the Kerala High Court has dismissed a public interest writ petition seeking a directive to the Centre and State governments, Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), Indian Certificate of Secondary Education Secretary and General Education Department to include law as a subject in the curriculum of schools in the State, preferably from the VIII standard onwards.
The petition was filed by Vinod Mathew Wilson of Kollam. According to him, people, irrespective of their social, educational, or financial standing, were hopelessly ignorant of law which rendered their lives miserable in every sphere of their day-to-day activities. The worst casualty was downtrodden among them. They were often subjected to even violation of their basic human rights. The practical solution is to include Law in the curriculum of the students so that imparting basic knowledge of law will have a far-reaching positive impact on their future life.
Dismissing the petition recently, the court pointed out that insofar as the field of education was concerned, the syllabus for imparting education was prescribed by various educational agencies, taking into account the opinions extended by the experts, and other studies carried out in a well defined manner so as to achieve targets, and inculcate values among the students. However, the Court under Article 226 of the Constitution of India could not undertake any such studies and issue a direction to the appropriate educational agency to include Law as a subject in the curriculum of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education.
The court noted that in order to include a subject in the curriculum of secondary as well as higher secondary education, there should be an in-depth study as to the manner in which a particular course was to be included in the curriculum. Law was a vast subject and all of a sudden, the court could not direct that the law should be included as a curriculum in the educational programs, such as CBSE, ICSE, and State syllabuses.
