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The contemplated order came on the 6th January, 1954, in the shape of circular No. SSN 2054(a) headed "Admissions to Schools teaching through the medium of English". In paragraphs 1, 2 and 3 of this circular reference was made to the development of the policy of the Government regarding the medium of instruction at the Primary and Secondary stages of education. It was pointed out that since 1926-27 the University of Bombay permitted pupils to answer questions in modern Indian languages at the Matriculation examination in all subjects except English and other foreign languages and that this had resulted in 1285 out of 1403 schools in the State ceasing to use English as the medium of lnstruction. It was then stated that in 1948 instructions were issued to all English teaching schools that admissions to such Schools should ordinarily be restricted to pupils who did not speak any of the regional languages of the State or whose mother tongue was English. It was said that in 1951, after a review of the -position, a general policy had been laid down to the effect that admission to such schools should be restricted only to four categories of children therein mentioned. Reference was then made to the recommendations of the Secondary Education Commission that the mother tongue or the regional language should generally be the medium of instruction throughout the Secondary school stage, subject to the. provision for special facilities for linguistic minorities. In paragraph 4 of the Circular order it was stated that the Government felt that the stage had then been reached for the discontinuance of English as a medium of instruction and that the Government had decided that subject to the facilities to be given to linguistic minorities all special and interim concessions in respect of admission to Schools (including Anglo-Indian Schools) using English as the medium of instruction, should thereafter be withdrawn. Then came the operative part of the order, the relevant portion of which is set out below:

"7. All Schools (including Anglo-Indian Schools) using English as a medium of instruction should regulate admissions according to this circular. With a view to facilitating the admission of pupils who under these orders are not intended to be educated through the medium of English, these schools are advised to open progressively divisions of Standards using Hindi or an Indian language as the medium of instruction, starting from Standard I in 1954. Government will be prepared to consider the payment of additional grant on merits for this purpose."

is guaranteed by article 29(1) to the Anglo-Indian Community as a section of the citizens. It is equally difficult, it is said, to appreciate why the salutory principle of imparting education through the medium of the pupil's mother tongue should require that a pupil whose mother tongue is not English but is, say, Guzrati, should be debarred from getting admission only into an Anglo-Indian School where the medium of instruction is English but not from being admitted into a School where the medium of instruction is a regional language, say Konkani, which is not the mother tongue of the pupil. The rival arguments thus formulated on both sides involve questions of State policy on education with which the Court has no concern. The American decisions founded on the 14th amendment which refers to due process of law may not be quite helpful in interpretation of our article 29. We must, therefore, evaluate the argument of the learned Attorney -General on purely legal considerations bearing. on the question of construction of article 29(2). The learned Attorney-General submits that the impugned order does not deny to pupils who are not Anglo-Indians or citizens of non-Asiatic descent, admission into an Anglo- Indian School only on the ground of religion, race, caste, language or any of them but on the ground that such denial will promote the advancement of the national language and facilitate the imparting of education through the medium of the pupil's mother tongue. He relies on a number of decisions of the High Courts, e.g., Yusuf Abdul Aziz v. State (1), Sm. Anjali Roy v. State of West Bengal (), The State of Bombay v. Narasu AppaMali (3), Srinivasa Ayyar v.Saraswathi Ammaland Dattatraraya Motiram More v. State of BombayThese decisions, it should, be noted, were concernedwith discrimination prohibited by article 15 which deals with discrimina. tion generally and not with denial of admission into educational institutions of certain kinds prohibited by article 29(2). It may also be mentioned that this (1) A.I.R 1951 Bom, 470.

(1)That no person -should teach any subject to any person in any language other than the English language, and (2)That languages other than English may be taught only after the pupil had passed the 8th grade.

A contravention of those two sections was made punishable. In the first mentioned case only the first part of the prohibition was challenged and struck down and in the second case both the provisions were declared invalid. The learned Attorney-General informed us that in 29 States in U.S.A. legislation had made compulsory provision for English as the medium of instruction. Those statutes do not appear to have been tested in Court and the Attorney-General cannot, therefore, derive much comfort from the fact that 29 States have by legislation adopted English as the medium of instruction. The learned Attorney-General (1) 262 U.S. 390; 67 Law. Ed. 1042.