Official Language of India

Official Language of India Article 343

Language of union: According Official Language of India Article 343, the official language of the Indian Union shall be Hindi in the Devanagari script.

The numerals form to be used for the official purpose of the Union shall be the international form of Indian numerals.

Official Language of States: Under Article 345, the Legislature of a State may adopt any one or more of the languages as the Language or Languages to be used for official purposes of that State.

Official Language of Judiciary: Until Parliament provides otherwise, English will be the language used in Supreme Court and High courts.
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Authoritative texts of bills, acts, orders, ordinances, regulations etc at central and state levels will be in English.

Communication between states: English would remain the link language for communication between Union and the state or between various states.

However, two or more states are free to use Hindi as a language of communication between them.

Official Language of India Act, 1963:

• The act provides for continued use of English even after 1965 for all official purposes of the Union and also transaction in Parliament.

About the Official Language Committee

• The panel, known officially as the Committee of Parliament on Official Language, was set up in 1976 under Section 4 of The Official Languages Act, 1963.
• Objective: The main objective of the committee is to review the progress made in the use of Hindi for official purposes, and to make recommendations to increase its use in official communications.
• Members: The Committee is headed by the Union Home Minister, and has 30 members — 20 MPs from Lok Sabha and 10 MPs from Rajya Sabha.
• Constitution: The committee has been constituted by the Home Ministry and does not submit its report to Parliament, unlike the Committees of Parliament.
• Submission: The panel submits its report to the President, who shall ensure that the report be laid before each House of Parliament, and sent to all the State Governments.

Official Language Committee Report

• The contents of the report are not available in public domain. However, there are reports that committee has recommended that Hindi should be the medium of instruction in IITs, IIMs, and central universities in the Hindi-speaking states.
• The committee has taken into account the reluctance of officers and other employees in the central government to not use Hindi in Hindi-speaking states.
  • Officials have been informed that their reluctance to use Hindi would reflect in their Annual Performance Assessment Report (APAR).
• There is an effort to make knowledge of Hindi compulsory in a number of government jobs. Deliberate attempts have been made to reduce the usage of the English language in official communication.
• Controversy:
  • Applicability to all the states: States such as Kerala and Tamil Nadu have objected the recommendations of the committee. However, these recommendations do not apply to all the states.
  • States such as Tamil Nadu and Kerala are exempt as per The Official Languages of India Act, 1963 and the Rules and Regulations (of the Act), 1976.
  • The recommendations will be implemented only in ‘A’ category states, in which the official language is Hindi.

Hindi Official Language of India in Constitution

• The Indian constitution states that both Hindi and English should be used as official languages for the first 15 years of the Republic, after independence.
• However, the government announced that English would continue to be used even after 1965, owing to anti-Hindi agitations.
• Article 351 of the Constitution mandates the active promotion of Hindi in administration. The Language Committee was set up to review and promote the use of Hindi in official communications.

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