(LANGUAGES, INTER STATE
RELATION, TRIBUNALS)
BY – DR.VIPAN GOYAL
Official Language
Part XVII of the Constitution deals with the official language in Articles
343 to 351.
Language of the Union
Hindi written in Devanagari script is to be the official
language of the Union.
The form of numerals to be used for the official purposes of
the Union has to be the international form of Indian numerals
and not the Devanagari form of numerals.
Accordingly, in 1955, the president appointed an Official
Language Commission under the chairmanship of BG Kher.
The commission submitted its report to the President in
1956.
The Parliament enacted the Official Language Act in 1963.
The act provides for the continued use of English (even after 1965), in addition to
Hindi, for all official purposes of the Union and also for the transaction of business in
Parliament.
Notably, this act enables the use of English indefinitely (without any time-limit).
Further, this act was amended in 1967 to make the use of English, in addition to Hindi,
compulsory in certain cases
Currently, the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution contains 22 languages-Assamese,
Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Kashmiri, Konkani, Malayalam, Manipuri, Marathi,
Nepali, Oriya, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Sindhi, Tamil, Telugu, Urdu, Bodo, Santhali, Maithili
and Dogri.
INTER STATE COUNCIL
Article 263 in The Constitution Of India 1949
263. Provisions with respect to an inter State Council If any
any time it appears to the President that the public interests
would be served by the establishment of a Council charged
with the duty of
(a) inquiring into and advising upon disputes which may
have arisen between States;
(b) investigating and discussing subjects in which some or
all of the States, or the Union and one or more of the States,
have a common interest; or
THANK YOU
