New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday agreed to examine the validity of CBSE’s recent policy mandating three languages ​​for Class 9, two of which should be Indian languages, which parents termed a sure recipe for chaos and confusion in the absence of trained teachers, requiring textbooks and denying students a choice.Several lawyers, including Mukul Rohatgi, Kapil Sibal and Shraddha Deshmukh, made repeated requests to stay the implementation of the policy, which came into effect from July 1. But a bench comprising CJI Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and Vipul M Pancholi rejected the request and said, “The objective (of the three-language policy) may be salutary, but we understand the difficulty faced by the students in the absence of infrastructure and teaching support.“The SC did not agree with the argument that the three-language scheme impacts federalism, but said it could be examined on the basis of rationality in view of infrastructure constraints.The bench considered a batch of petitions filed by parents and teachers from the National Capital Region and Chennai, seeking a comprehensive affidavit dealing with all the issues raised by the petitioners related to the implementation of the policy, and said it would devote a day to its decision in the second week of July.“There is a ray of hope because there are no examinations right now,” the CJI said, but he also recognized the importance of the pleas about the hardship and inconvenience faced by students in the absence of trained teachers and textbooks in Indian languages. SC issued notice to Education Ministry, CBSE and NCERT.Additional SG Aishwarya Bhati said the policy has been formulated after much deliberation and the court should wait for the response of students after its implementation before deciding on its validity.Sibal said the emphasis on the two native languages ​​denied students the opportunity to make an informed choice and raised issues of federalism.Justice Bagchi immediately responded and said that there is no issue of federalism as more and more languages ​​have been added to the Eighth Schedule by designating them as national languages. “But it could be an issue of unfairness when trained teachers and books are not available in schools,” he said.The main petition, filed through advocate Deshmukh by 17 parents and two teachers of children studying in CBSE-affiliated schools in Delhi, Noida, Gurgaon and Chennai, said the new policy is contrary to the CBSE’s April 9 notification which clearly assured that the third language “will not be implemented at the Class IX level till the academic session 2029-30”.However, the change in the policy of three languages, two of which should be Indian – once the session for 2026-27 begins on May 15, allocation of languages ​​and timetable is finalized – will cause irreversible harm to thousands of Class IX students and take away the livelihood of many teachers skilled in teaching foreign languages, as they will have to make way for teachers who can teach regional languages, the plea said.It said the unavailability of textbooks and teaching material and the ad-hoc arrangement by CBSE asking students to learn the basics of another Indian language from class six textbooks have increased the problems faced by students and teachers.“Making a compulsory subject mandatory without textbooks, trained teachers or an evaluation framework does not amount to quality education; it is a constitutional violation,” the petition said. The petition has requested the Supreme Court to stop CBSE from making such agreements on quality education.