Counsel rapped over printing of old syllabus

CHENNAI: “You have made a mockery of the court,” observed the First Bench comprising Chief Justice MY Eqbal and Justice TS Sivagnanam during the course of arguments on the pleas for and against the Samacheer Kalvi scheme, on Thursday.The Chief Justice made the observation pointing at Supreme Court senior advocate PP Rao, who was representing the government, and Advocate-General A Navaneethakrishnan at one stage of arguments on the batch of petitions. “While on one hand you say that you have appointed an experts’ panel to go through the syllabus and books, on the other hand you are going in for printing the old syllabus books,” the Chief Justice pointed out and wondered as to why contempt of court proceedings should not be initiated against the government.Rao traced the history of the Samacheer Kalvi system and concluded his arguments by saying that the syllabus was sub-standard and the government’s intention was not to abandon the scheme, but to implement the same from next academic year by improving the quality of the syllabus and text books.On behalf of one of the petitioners, senior advocate NGR Prasad said that the amended Act postponing the implementation was an arbitrary exercise aimed at undoing the parent Act. There were abundant materials. Students, parents and educationists were consulted. It was approved in 2006. In 2009 an ordinance was issued and it was enacted in 2010 after a long debate by experts. The HC had also looked into the matter and upheld Act by a well considered judgment. Now, without any legislative power, the amendment had been brought out. The arguments will continue on July 11.