Bengaluru: Yesterday, the High court of Karnataka, with Justice B.V. Nagarathna in the chair, asked the State Advocate-General Ravivarma Kumar, “Why can’t the State government permit new English-medium schools when the Supreme Court has ruled against the State’s language policy of allowing primary education only in Kannada medium?”

The High Court, made it clear to him that the issue of having a policy on medium of instruction is no more in the State’s realm after the Supreme Court declared that it is the parent who has the right to decide the language of instruction for the child and not the State.

This question was raised when, Kumar sought time till April to submit arguments on the petitions, filed by the Associated Managements of Government Recognised English Medium Schools in Karnataka and others, on the government not accepting applications to start new English medium schools.

The court refused time till April and said it would hear the petitions on Friday.