Special Officer for Linguistic Minorities

Official Language of the Union (Article 343-351):

• [Art 343 (1)]. The Official Language of the Union shall be Hindi in Devanagari Script but the form of numerical to be used for the official purposes of Union shall be the international form of Indian numerals. However, for period of fifteen years from the commencement of the Constitution the English language shall continue to be used for all official purposes of the Union.
• [Art. 343 (3)] Even after fifteen years, the Parliament may by law provide for the use of English Language for specified purposes.
• Even during this period of fifteen years, the President authorise the use of the Hindi Language, in addition to the English Language, and of Devanagari forms of numerical for any official purposes of the Union.

Commission and Committee of Parliament on Official Language:

Article 344 provides for the appointment of a Commission on Official Language. At the expiration five years from the commencement of the Constitution and after ten years, the President shall appoint a Commission. The Commission shall consist of a Chairman and other members representing the different languages [Art. 344 (4), (5), (6)). The Commission is to make recommendations to the President regarding following:

• Progressive use of the Hindi language for the official purposes of the Union
• Restrictions on the use of English language for all or any of the official purposes Union
• The language to be used for the proceedings in the Supreme Court and the High Court.
• The form of numerical to be used for any one or more specified purposes of the Union.
• Any other matter referred to the Commission by the President as regards the official Language of the Union and the language for communication between the Union and state.

There shall be constituted a Committee consisting of thirty members of whom twenty will be elected by the House of the People and ten by the Council of States, to the recommendations of the Commission and to report to the President their thereon. After considering the report of the Committee the President may issue directions in accordance with the whole or any part of the report.

Official language or languages of a State (Article 345):

Subject to the provisions of Article 346 and 347, the Legislature of a State may by law adopt any one or more of the languages in use in the State or Hindi as the language or languages to be used for all or any of the official purposes of that State.

Official language for communication between one State and another or between a State and the Union (Article 346):

• The language for the time being authorised for use in the Union for official purposes shall be the official language for communication between one State and another State and between a State and the Union:
  • Provided that if two or more States agree that the Hindi language should be the official language for communication between such States, that language may be used for such communication.
• The Official Languages Act (1963) lays down that English should be used for purposes of communication between the Union and the non-Hindi states (that is, the states that have not adopted Hindi as their official language). Further, where Hindi is used for communication between a Hindi and a non-Hindi state, such communication in Hindi should be accompanied by an English translation.

Special provision relating to language spoken by a section of the population of a State (Article 347):

On a demand being made in that behalf the President may, if he is satisfied that a substantial proportion of the population of a State desire the use of any language spoken by them to be recognised by that State, direct that such language shall also be officially recognised throughout that State or any part thereof for such purpose as he may specify.

Article 350B:

• There shall be a Special Officer for linguistic minorities to be appointed by the President.
• It shall be the duty of the Special Officer to investigate all matters relating to the safeguards provided for linguistic minorities under this Constitution and report to the President upon those matters at such intervals as the President may direct, and the President shall cause all such reports to be laid before each House of Parliament and sent to the Governments of the States concerned.

Article 348: Language of Judiciary:

• Until Parliament provides otherwise, the following are to be in English language only:
  • All proceedings in the Supreme Court and in every high court.
  • The authoritative texts of all bills, acts, ordinances, orders, rules, regulations and byelaws at the Central and state levels.
• However, the governor of a state, with the previous consent of the president, authorise the use of Hindi or any other official language of the state, in the proceedings in the high court of the state, but not with respect to the judgements, decrees and orders passed by it. In other words, the judgements, decrees and orders of the high court must continue to be in English only (until Parliament otherwise provides).
• Similarly, a state legislature can pre- scribe the use of any language (other than English) with respect to bills, acts, ordinances, orders, rules, regulations or byelaws, but a translation of the same in the English language is to be published.

The Official Languages Act of 1963 lays down that Hindi translation of acts, ordinances, orders, regulations and byelaws published under the authority of the president are deemed to be authoritative texts. Further, every bill introduced in the Parliament is to be accompanied by a Hindi translation. Similarly, there is to be a Hindi translation of state acts or ordinances in certain cases.

The act also enables the governor of a state, with the previous consent of the president, to authorise the use of Hindi or Any Other Official Language of the state for judgements, decrees, and orders passed by the high court of the state but they should be accompanied by an English translation.