Supreme Court directs Tamil Nadu to identify land for Navodaya Vidyalayas

The Supreme Court of India has directed the Tamil Nadu government to comply with a December 2025 order to identify land for the establishment of Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalayas (JNVs) in every district of the state. The court granted the state government a three-month extension to complete this task.

The ruling follows a legal challenge by Tamil Nadu against a Madras High Court directive. The state has expressed opposition to the schools, citing conflicts between the JNVs' three-language policy, which includes Hindi, and Tamil Nadu's two-language policy.

During the hearing, a bench comprising Justices B V Nagarathna and Augustine George Masih emphasized the importance of “cooperative federalism.” Justice Nagarathna remarked that the state needs to “change its mindset” regarding the teaching of Hindi, stating, “It can't be that Hindi will not be taught in the soil of Tamil Nadu.” The court noted that the addition of these central co-educational residential schools should not diminish the state's existing educational standards.