The Supreme Court on Thursday (September 17, 2026) said Tamil Nadu has to change the “mindset” that Hindi cannot be taught on the soil of the State, cautioning that “individual States cannot act like individual countries”.
The oral observations from Justice B.V. Nagarathna came in a nearly hour-long hearing on the adoption of the Navodaya Vidyalaya Scheme in Tamil Nadu. In the interregnum, the State and Central representatives were asked to discuss the policy of establishing Navodaya schools in Tamil Nadu. But Mr. This kind of unification is not the purport of the Constitution. Federalism is also part of the Basic Structure”. The judge responded that the governance structure in India was unitary in spirit and federal in structure. Gupta submitted. The current dispensation was only a little over three months old, Mr.
The apex court gave Tamil Nadu three months to comply with a December 15, 2025, order to identify requisite land for Navodaya schools in each district . The court noted that its December 2025 order to the State to identify lands for Navodaya schools had not been complied with, the court noted.
It said the direction would be subject to final orders passed later on. Justice Nagarathna replied that “we are ultimately a unitary form of government”. Gupta said he begged to differ with the court, saying “we are a federal government. “Taking into account that this is a Concurrent List subject; taking into account every State has its own requirement; taking into account that language is a fundamental right in this country; taking into account every State has its own laws; taking all that into account, Navodaya is an optional policy… If the Supreme Court now issues a mandamus to the State to adopt that optional policy of the Centre, then My Lords, what you are doing is upsetting 75 years of decision-making by this court,” Mr. The federal structure would take a hit if each State decided to disagree with a Central policy and went its own way, the judge said. Gupta said.
