ORDER :

N.KIRUBAKARAN.J

PRAYER: Petition filed under Article 226 of the Constitution of India praying for issuance of Writ of Mandamus, directing the respondents to ensure that all communications between the Union of India and the State of Tamil Nadu and its people and also with Members of Parliament belonging to the State of Tamil Nadu shall be in English language alone and appropriate action should be taken against the concerned officials responsible for violating the said procedure.

India is multi linguistic;

India is multi racial;

India is multi religious;

India is multi ethnic and

India is multi cultural.

Unity in diversity represents India. When a country's masses have different cultural, linguistic, ethnic and religious identities, the same shall be maintained and protected in the interest of the unity of our great country. If Any attempt is made to disturb or destroy or interfere with any of the aforesaid issues, especially languages, it could become a sensitive issue. During freedom struggle, many leaders of our country, have shed blood, lost their lives, undergone incarceration and sacrificed their properties and profession, out of patriotism, for our motherland. Their sacrifices would be honoured only by respecting the identities of the citizens. Be it language, race, religion or region, any discrimination would definitely cause an uprising in the society which may lead to splitting of the country which should be avoided. Any kind of fanaticism is not good for any society. Fanaticism, in any form, is to be condemned, if it is exhibited. Linguistic fanaticism is more dangerous as it would give an impression that one language alone is superior and being imposed upon the people speaking different languages. When even an apprehension should not be created that a particular language is surpassed or sidelined in a multi-linguistic country like ours, a few chosen languages are getting princely status with enormous money allotted for development of those languages alone.

2. The VIII Schedule of our Constitution speaks about 22 languages and they are as follows:

1. Assamese. 2. Bengali. 3. Bodo. 4. Dogri. 5. Gujarati. 6. Hindi. 7. Kannada. 8. Kashmiri. 9. Konkani. 10. Maithili. 11. Malayalam. 12. Manipuri. 13. Marathi. 14. Nepali. 15. Oriya. 16. Punjabi. 17. Sanskrit. 18. Santhali. 19. Sindhi. 20. Tamil. 21. Telugu. 22. Urdu

It is not as if 22 languages alone are spoken in India, but more than thousands of languages are spoken. It is very interesting and surprising to note that certain languages, which are being spoken by a few hundreds of people, are included in VIII Schedule, whereas languages, like Gondi, which is spoken by more than one crore people belonging to different States, like Andhra Pradesh, Uttranchal, Odiya, Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka are not included for the reasons best known to the successive Union Government. It should be the endeavour of the Government, especially, the Union Government to develop all the languages of the country, so that, the languages are protected and are passed on to the next generation.

3. As evident from the reports of Kodumanal excavation site in Erode District, Tamil language had developed even before 400 BC, which is scientifically proved by doing Carbon Dating Test on the pottery sets found with Tamil inscriptions. Keeladi excavation reports proved that Tamil language was used during 500 BC. The above facts should not be mistaken and misunderstood that Tamil was used only during 500 BC. Even before 500 BC, the said language was used by the masses. Therefore, Tamil should have been the language of masses, atleast, around 3000 to 4000 BC. It is not to promote the literary value of Tamil language, but it is only to see that the ancient language is protected if it is continued to be used by the masses and used by the Government.

4. The Central Government understood the importance of all the languages of the country and formulated a National Educational Policy, which gives much thrust and impor