Supreme Court dismisses PIL to make Yoga compulsory in schools

The Supreme court today dismissed a PIL filed by advocates Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay and JC Seth seeking to make yoga compulsory in schools. A Bench of Justices Madan B Lokur and Adarsh Kumar Goel said that it is for the government to decide and not the Court..On November 29 last year, the Court had sought the Centre’s response in a PIL for making yoga a compulsory subject in schools, citing Sections 7(6) and 8(g) and (h) of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009 and the National Curriculum Framework (NCF). The PIL was filed as an appeal against the Delhi High Court’s rejection of a similar plea in March 2011..Contending that yoga was “secular” and an integral part of the right to health and education, Upadhyay and Seth had asked the Court to direct the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) to make yoga education compulsory in standards I to VIII..The petition states:.“Yoga and Health Education’ has become the fundamental right of 6-14 years children after enactment of the RTE Act. However, it has remained a most neglected subject….…Marks are not awarded for Yoga in annual exam and even the teachers of Kendriya Vidyalaya and Navoday Schools say that yoga is not a compulsory subject. It is very surprising that NCERT has not yet published standard textbooks of ‘Yoga and Health Education’ for students of Class I-VIII. .It is necessary to state that without syllabus, without standard textbooks, without trained teachers and without evaluation of marks, there has been total failure in imparting the yoga education in spirit of NCF 2005.”.They also cited the California’s 4th District Court of Appeal 2015 decision in the case of Encinitas Union Elementary School District, which held that yoga is secular and making it compulsory does not violate the freedom of religion..As per reports, the Centre in an affidavit stated before the Court that yoga could not be made enforceable as a fundamental right. The.“RTE Act does not specifically mention about the curriculum of yoga. As such, it cannot be concluded that yoga education has become an enforceable fundamental right. Yoga is an integral part of the curriculum of ‘Health and Physical Education’, which is a compulsory subject for Classes 1 to 10. To that extent, yoga has not been neglected in school education.”.Moreover, education is a subject under the Concurrent List, and therefore it is for the states and union territories to decide upon the issue and ensure compliance of the provisions of NCF, under which yoga is an integral part of “Health and Physical Education” at all levels of school education.