The Madras supreme court on Thursday ordered the Centre to form sure that each one communication with the Tamil Nadu government should be “in English only”, reported the days of India. The supreme court directed the Union government to stick to the provisions of the Official Languages Act.
A division bench of Justices N Kirubakaran and M Duraiswamy noted that after a representation was made in English, it had been the central government’s duty to send a reply within the same language as mandated under provisions of the Act.
The court was hearing a plea filed by Madurai Lok Sabha MP Su Venkatesan, who sought an order to only use English altogether communication between the Union government and therefore the state, its MPs and therefore the public. The plea was moved after the Minister of State for Home Affairs Nityanand Rai replied to Venkatesan’s letter in Hindi.
“Tamil Nadu has not found out an examination centre in Pondicherry for the written test to fill 780 vacancies in B and Group C,” the general public interest litigation read, consistent with Mint. “So I sent a letter on October 9 to the Ministry of Home Affairs asking them to line up a minimum of one examination centre in these areas.”
The judges on Thursday said that this was an age of data and communication and thus the Centre should take measures for the preservation and development of all languages.
The court also mentioned Article 350 (language to be utilized in representations for redress of grievances) of the Constitution, observing that a private was entitled to submit his representations to the Centre in any of the languages in use in India.
“Mother tongue should even be given importance, like that of English as knowledge without understanding of maternal language would be incomplete,” the court added, reported The New Indian Express.
