The Madras High Court has suspended the aptitude test for the Central Scholarship Program which was to be conducted under KVPY (Kishor Vidyarthi Protsahan Yojana) or Young Scholars’ Encouragement Scheme. The court has stayed the test after a petition was filed against it on grounds of excluding regional languages. 

The exam was being conducted only in Hindi and English medium. The court also rejected the Centre’s claim that it did not have examiners to evaluate the materials submitted by regional language students. The Bench comprising of Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee and M. Duraiswami held that this was a failing of the Central government and non-Hindi and English students should not suffer due to it.  

The Madras HC has therefore asked the Centre to respond and also ordered it to conduct the examination in other regional languages. Currently, the exam can be taken only in English or Hindi and this can cause the debate on language imposition to erupt once more. 

Recently, there was the case of a Zomato customer service employee who said to a customer from Tamil Nadu that it is “normal to know Hindi” and “everyone should know it”. This interaction was posted to social media and went viral, attracting lots of criticism from South Indians, which prompted the company to issue an apology and clarification statement. 

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