Under Article 343 of the Constitution of India, only Hindi and English are recognized as the official languages of the Union; the recognition of twenty-two languages does not categorize them as official languages of the Union.

PRAYER :

Appeal filed under Clause XV of Letters Patent, against the order dated 14.11.2025 in W.P.No.44304 of 2025.

J U D G M E N T

(Judgment of the Court was delivered by R.SURESH KUMAR, J.)

This intra-Court appeal has been directed against the order dated 14.11.2025 made in W.P.No.44304 of 2025.

2. The appellant was the writ petitioner, who participated in the selection process for the post of Sub-Inspector of Police in the Police Department, Joint Recruitment-2023, conducted by the second respondent, i.e., Tamil Nadu Uniformed Services Recruitment Board (in short ‘TNUSRB’).

3. The appellant’s contention was that, though he has written correct answer to Question No.5 relating to a constitutional provision, mark has not been awarded to him, therefore, if the mark is awarded to the said question, i.e., 0.5 marks added, he will reach the zone of consideration, thereby he would have been selected, is his case. In this context, he approached the writ Court, the writ Court rejected the said writ petition through the impugned order by citing the earlier order passed by the writ Court in W.P.No.30928 of 2023 etc., batch dated 30.11.2023, where these kind of issues raised by various candidates having been considered were referred to an Expert Committee and the said Expert Committee having considered all those queries raised by the various applicants have given opinion about the answers of such questions, which were referred to the Expert Committee, based on which, wherever wrong answer had been given, 0.5 marks have already been awarded and therefore, that issue has been concluded, hence it cannot be re-agitated once again, was the answer given by the writ Court in rejecting the writ petition through the impugned order.

4. Assailing the same, Mr.L.Chandrakumar, learned counsel appearing for the appellant would contend that, Question No.5, asking the candidates to answer, whether the statement ‘Constitution of India recognises twenty two languages as official languages’ is a correct statement or not. Like that yet another statement, namely, ‘the Government of India has declared ‘Tamil’ as the first Classical Language’, whether is a correct statement or not.

5. The answer had been given by four options, under option (a) - I statement only correct, option (b) – II statement only correct, option (c) – I and II correct and option (d) – I & II wrong.

6. Since there has been some confusion with regard to the answer key that had been referred to by the experts, the experts after having verified the relevant provisions of the Constitution had opined that, as per Articles 343 & 344 of the Constitution of India, Hindi and English are declared to be the official languages. Like that, the Government of India had declared ‘Tamil’ as the first classical language, is a correct statement. Hence, the final key answer would be that, option (b), i.e., II statement only correct, is the correct answer.

7. Based on the answer key finally given by way of expert opinion, when Question No.5 is verified, the appellant / writ petitioner has since written option (c), i.e., I and II correct and that is since a wrong answer, he is not entitled to get mark of 0.5, therefore, he was rejected.

8. This has been demonstrated by the learned Additional Advocate General appearing for the respondent TNSURB and he has produced the copy of the Expert Committee opinion, which this Court has compared with the provisions of the Constitution, namely, Articles 343 & 344 of the Constitution, where especially under Article 343, it has been specifically mentioned that the official language of the Union sha