High Court directs Centre to follow provisions of Official Languages Act

Aug. 20: On Thursday, the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court directed the Central Govt to follow the provisions of the Official Languages Act, 1963 strictly. The HC said that the Centre should reply in the language in which the State Govt sends the application to the Central Government.

“Once a representation is given in English, it is the duty of the Union government to give the reply in English only,” the court said. The directions by a division bench comprising Justices N Kirubakaran and M Duraiswamy came on a Public Interest Litigation filed by Madurai Lok Sabha MP S. Venkatesh.

“Tamil Nadu has not set up an examination centre in Pondicherry for the written test to fill 780 vacancies in Group B and Group C. So I sent a letter on October 9 to the Ministry of Home Affairs asking them to set up at least one examination centre in these areas,” read the petition by Venkatesh. “The Minister of State for Home Affairs had sent a reply in a letter written in Hindi on November 9. Thus I could not know what they were saying in it,” it said.

Hearing the Public Interest Litigation, the Bench said, “Answering in Hindi is a violation of the law. The people of Tamil Nadu continue to respond in Hindi to letters sent to the Central Government asking them to address their grievances. This is contrary to constitutional legal rights & the Official Languages Act of 1963.” The Central Government has stated that it has no intention of violating the rule.