In Kendiya Vidyalayas, German is set to be replaced with Sanskrit as the third language.
The government has been given a week by the Supreme Court to explain its decision to bar students from studying German as a third language in Kendriya Vidyalayas or central schools across the country.
The Supreme Court's action is based on a petition by 20 parents of affected students
Kendriya Vidyalayas - there are nearly 1,000 of them - are set up for the education of the children of national government employees. Because these government officers work in transferable jobs, the syllabus is uniform across the country to ensure that children are not at a disadvantage when they move to a new city.
Earlier this month, Education Minister Smriti Irani said that German will be replaced with Sanskrit as the third language that students of Class 6-8 have to study. Nearly 70,000 students are affected by the government order. The academic year ends in March, and many were facing the prospect of their first test by next week.
Ms Irani says that the national education policy dictates that apart from Hindi and English, students at Kendiya Vidyalayas are required to study a third language, but a foreign language like German cannot fulfill that requirement. Sanskrit is said to be a popular option in northern states, but Ms Irani has said that other Indian languages like Tamil are acceptable and will be taught "if even one student wants".
In 2011, an agreement was signed between Kendriya Vidyalayas and Max Mueller Bhavans or Goetha Institutes, which are tasked by the German government to propagate the country's culture abroad. Ms Irani says that contract, which led to the introduction of German at central schools, was incorrectly signed in the first place and could not be renewed in September this year.
Last week, German Chancellor Angela Merkel flagged the issue with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the sidelines of the G20 Summit in Australia.