Guwahati: The Supreme Court on Thursday asked the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) to consider deferring the implementation of its three-language policy for Class 6 students to the 2027-28 academic session.
The CBSE, represented by Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati, told a Bench comprising Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V. Mohana that it would consider the suggestion and submit a fresh note on the issue.
Justice Bagchi suggested that the CBSE defer the policy’s implementation from the next academic year to avoid putting additional pressure on students. He also said students currently in Class 6 who wish to study three languages could be allowed to do so from the current academic year.
The Bench clarified that its suggestions were without prejudice to the rights and contentions of the parties and that the substantive issues could be decided later.
The court’s intervention comes amid a challenge to the CBSE’s three-language policy, which requires students to study three languages, including at least two native Indian languages. On May 27, the Supreme Court agreed to examine a plea challenging the policy and issued notices to the Centre, CBSE and the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT).
Earlier, the Centre and CBSE had told the Bench that they were considering its suggestions on implementing the policy for Class 6 students.
According to a CBSE circular, three-language study has also been made compulsory for Class 9 students from July 1, 2026, with at least two of the languages required to be native Indian languages.
The CBSE has said that examples of native Indian languages include Hindi, Sanskrit, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Bengali, Punjabi, Gujarati, Odia and Assamese, while English, French, German and Spanish are among the languages classified as non-native.
Two Indian languages have been made mandatory for Class 6, with certain relaxations for students in Classes 7, 8 and 9 who were previously studying two non-native languages.
The policy is part of the CBSE’s alignment of its scheme of studies with the National Education Policy-2020 and the National Curriculum Framework for School Education-2023.
Under the CBSE’s May 15 circular, students opting for a foreign language may take it only as the third language after studying two native Indian languages, or as an additional fourth language.
For Class 9, the CBSE said three languages—R1, R2 and R3—would be compulsory from July 1, 2026, with at least two being native Indian languages. Until dedicated R3 textbooks become available, students are to use the Class 6 R3 textbooks for 2026-27.
The board has also said that no board examination would be conducted for R3 at the Class 10 level to reduce pressure on students. Schools were directed to update their R3 language offerings for Classes 6 to 9 on the OASIS portal by June 30.