New Delhi: In a significant judgement, the Supreme Court has ruled that if a Government decided to make the State language a compulsory subject in the school syllabi, it cannot be said to be violative of the fundamental right of the minority community to establish and administer schools.

This ruling was given by a Bench comprising Chief Justice S Rajendra Babu, Justice A R Lakshmanan and Justice G P Mathur while rejecting a petition saying imposition of Marathi as a subject in syllabi violated the fundamental right of minority community to set up and administer a school of their choice.

Justice Babu, writing for the Bench, said it was settled that State could impose reasonable regulations on institutions established and managed by minority community for protecting the larger interest of the State and the nation.

Rejecting the stand of the Gujarati school, the court said the policy decision of the Maharashtra Government was taken by keeping the larger interest of the State because the official and common business was carried on in the State in Marathi language.

"Hence, the regulation imposed by the State of Maharashtra upon the linguistic minorities to teach its regional language is only a reasonable one," it said.

On the question of fundamental right of the minority groups, the Bench said, "It is difficult to read Article 29 and 30 in such a way that it contains a negative right to exclude the learning of regional language."