Madras HC to Centre: Use English for official purposes
- Posted By
10Pointer
- Categories
Polity & Governance
- Published
21st Aug, 2021
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Context
The Centre states that it should use only the English language in all communication between Central and state governments.
Decision given by court
- The Madras High Court has directed the Centre to give reply in English if the representation is made in the said language, saying it was the "duty" of the union government to do so.
- It is the duty of the union government to reply in English if representation was given in that language
Linguistic Diversity of India
- India, undoubtedly is a treasure trove of linguistic diversity, with nearly 450 living languages
- 22 of them granted the status of a ‘Scheduled language’ under the Constitution.
- The country also faces the perennial threat of indigenous languages dying.
- As per the first-ever linguistic survey conducted, completed between 2010 and 2013.
- India has already lost over 200 indigenous languages in the last 50 years.
- It is claimed that another 150 languages could vanish in the coming decades.
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Language provisions in the Constitution of the Indian Union
- The Constitution adopted in 1950 stipulated that English and Hindi would be used for the Union's official business for a period of fifteen years.
- After that time, Hindi was supposed to become the sole official language of the Union.
- It proved impossible to replace English with Hindi, however, because of strong opposition from the southern states, where Dravidian languages were spoken.
- They felt that the federal government was trying to impose Hindi across the country.
- In the south, they preferred to continue using English, which they found more "acceptable" because, unlike Hindi, it was not associated with any particular ethnic group.
- Later, the Official Languages Act legally established Hindi and English as the languages used in Congress, while leaving states and territories free to choose their own official languages.
Official language act
An Act to provide for the languages which may be used for the official purposes of the Union, for transaction of business in Parliament, for Central and State Acts and for certain purposes in High Courts.
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