Madurai: The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court has directed the Tamil Nadu government to take policy steps to include Dr B R Ambedkar’s role as chairman of the Constitution Drafting Committee in the State school curriculum.
The order arose from a petition seeking to quash a case registered in 2018 under the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act. The case related to an incident in Sivaganga district where an Ambedkar poster displayed for his birth anniversary was allegedly torn, and a video of the act was circulated on a WhatsApp group. The petitioners later said the dispute had been settled with the complainant.
Justice L Victoria Gowri observed that the petitioners had only a superficial understanding of Ambedkar and that disrespecting his image reflects disregard for the Republic’s core values of justice, liberty, equality and fraternity. As part of the proceedings, the court had earlier directed each petitioner to buy 101 Tamil books centred on Ambedkar’s life, read them, and distribute 100 copies to students of the Murugappa Government Higher Secondary School, T Kallupatti, besides depositing Rs 5,000 each to the Adyar Cancer Institute account.
After verifying compliance and conducting an oral test on Ambedkar’s life and constitutional contributions—where the petitioners answered satisfactorily and sought apology—the court quashed the case. The bench also instructed the Chief Secretary to ensure Ambedkar’s constitutional vision and contributions are included in Classes 3 to 10 social science syllabus, to be implemented from the 2027–28 academic year, and sought a government report by January 21, 2027.
