Ruling that the Union Government cannot use Hindi for official correspondence with Tamil Nadu, the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court has observed that the Centre was bound to use English for the “purpose of communication” with the southern state.
The court passed the order in August, which was made public recently, on a petition filed by Madurai Lok Sabha MP and Sahitya Akademi award-winning writer Su Venkatesan seeking a direction to the Union Government to use English in all official communication with Tamil Nadu.
The MP had received replies in Hindi to the letters he had written in English to various departments of the Union Government. Several other MPs from Tamil Nadu have also been complaining that the Centre was replying in Hindi to their correspondence in English on matters relating to their constituencies.
“Admittedly, the State of Tamil Nadu has not adopted Hindi as its official language, whereas it has adopted two languages formally viz., Tamil and English. As per Proviso to Section 1(a) of the (Official Languages) Act, the Central Government is bound to use English for the purpose of communication with the State of Tamil Nadu,” the court said.
The bench of Justices N Kirubakaran (now retired) and M Duraiswamy said Hindi cannot be used for official correspondence with Tamil Nadu and observed that it would be appropriate, and it is expected that the Central Government gives its reply to the citizens, in their respective language as stated in Article 350.
The judges also observed that the language issue is a very sensitive one and it should be approached very sensibly and recalled the anti-Hindi protests in Tamil Nadu.
“Even if an inadvertent mistake is made regarding the use of language that will be a cause for many issues in the society. Therefore, the Central Government is duty-bound to follow the provisions of the official languages Act…Once a representation is given in English, it is the duty of the Union Government to give a reply in English only which will also be in consonance with the statute, viz., the Official Languages Act,” the Bench said.
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Source: https://www.deccanherald.com/national/south/use-english-while-communicating-with-tamil-nadu-madras-high-court-tells-centre-1029685.html
