The Madras High Court on Tuesday said it shall permit the conduct of Kishore Vaigyanik Protsahan Yojana (KVPY), a national talent search examination conducted by the Centre for fellowship in basic sciences, this year in English and Hindi alone if the Centre gives a firm commitment to conduct it in all scheduled Indian languages from next year.

Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee and Justice P.D. Audikesavalu granted time till November 15 for Additional Solicitor General R Sankaranarayanan to file an affidavit that the exam would be conducted in all scheduled languages from next year. They said final orders on the issue would be passed after the filing of the affidavit.

The observations were made during the hearing of a public interest litigation petition which insisted upon conducting KVPY examination in regional languages too. Representing the Centre, the ASG told the court that the examination was conducted only in English from 1999 to 2009. Hindi was introduced only in 2009, he said.

Appreciating the conduct of the exam at least in one of the Indian languages, the judges said it was essential to conduct it in other scheduled Indian languages too so that language does not end up as a barrier in spotting bright young minds spread across the country and granting them fellowships to pursue higher education.

To this, the ASG replied that it would take a minimum of five to six months to prepare question papers and answer keys in all scheduled Indian languages. If such a course had to be resorted to for this year, it wouldn’t be possible to conduct the KVPY examination and it would have to be cancelled, he told the court.

At this point of time, the judges said their intention was not to put spokes on the examinations this year if the Centre could give a firm commitment to the court that the process for conducting next year’s KVPY exam, in all scheduled Indian languages, would begin immediately. The ASG sought time till Monday to file such an affidavit and it was granted.

The KVPY examination this year was scheduled to be held across the country on November 7. However, it had to be postponed due to the case pending in the Madras High Court.