( 1 ) SEMINAL questions of National importance arise for consideration in these ten writ petitions presented by the Linguistic Minorities in the State, questioning the constitutional validity of the order of the State Government which makes the study of Kannada, the official language of the State, in addition to mother-tongue by children belonging to linguistic minority groups, from the first year of the Primary Schools, compulsory, and prescribing Kannada as the sole First Language in the Secondary Schools. They are :whether the Order of the State Government which prescribes that Kannada which is the regional and the official language of the State- (i) a compulsory subject for study for children belonging to linguistic minority groups in Primary Schools, in addition to the mother-tongue of the children concerned from the first year of primary school, and (ii) the sole first language in the secondary schools, is violative of Arts. 14, 29, 30 and 350-A of the Constitution of India ?

( 2 ) THE facts of the case, in brief are :- The State Government made an order on 20th July 1982 prescribing that Kannada should be the sole first language of the Secondary School level from the academic year 1987-88 leaving choice to the students in respect of only two other languages out of the list of languages, in which Kannada is also one of them. The order also directs the teaching of Kannada shall be compulsory from the first year of the primary school in non-Kannada Schools and to children whose mother tongue is not Kannada with immediate effect. The relevant portion of the order reads :"keeping in view the above, Government are pleased to direct as follows : -1. At the secondary school level, the language pattern to be adopted shall be as follows (from the academic year 1987-88): a. First language :-Kannada shall be the sole first language (to carry 125 marks)B. Two other languages from the following :-Urdu, Tamil, Telugu, Marathi, English, Hindi, Sanskrit, Arabic, Persian, Malyalam and Kannada, (to carry 100 marks each ). Note :- 15 grace marks shall be given for a period of ten year (s) in the first language examination, to students, whose mother tongue is not Kannada, and (b) in Hindi examination to students who study Hindi and whose mother tongue is not Hindi. 2. Students coming from outside the State and joining VIII or IX Std. in the State of Karnataka and who did not study Kannada earlier may be permitted to take English or Hindi as first language. The teaching of Kannada from, 1st standard in non-Kannada schools will commerce from the academic year 1982 itself and the language pattern for High Schools prescribed in para (1) above will come into force from the academic year 1987-88. "the constitutional validity of the aforesaid orders have been challenged in all the above 10 writ petitions. (I) W. P. Nos. 28566 and 28567/1982 are presented by the General Secretary, Linguistic Minorities Protection Committee, Davangere, Chitradurga District and a student of the 1st Standard of Urdu Primary Girls Schools, Amrutur, represented by her guardian representing Urdu Linguistic Minority. (II) W. P. No. 32654/1982 is presented by the Linguistic Minorities Language Rights Protection Committee, KGF, Kolar district and an Ex. M. L. A. of K. G. F. representing Tamil Linguistic Minorities. In this petition it is stated that at K. G. F. itself Tamil population is above 1 lakh, and there are 30 Primary Schools at which primary education is in Tamil and 11 High Schools at which Tamil is the first language. (III) W. P. No. 33790/1982 is by Anjuman Tarraqui Urdu (Hind), Karnataka and 4 others of Bangalore, an organisation established for conservation development and propagation of Urdu. The second petitioner is a student at Government Urdu Primary school. The fourth petitioner is a Tamilian whose grand children are studying in Tamil Primary School and the fifth petitioner is a person whose mother-tongue is Telugu, (IV) W. P. Nos. 36630 an