Shillong, July 12: The Meghalaya High Court has adjourned a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by the Meghalaya Linguistic Minority Development Forum against state and central governments over implementation of official recommendations for welfare of linguistic minorities in Meghalaya.
Hearing the PIL, the high court on Friday adjourned the matter till July 22, to enable the petitioner to file an affidavit in this regard.
Earlier on July 1, the Meghalaya High Court directed the state and central governments to submit a report on the status of a 2016 report by Commissioner for Linguistic Minorities, making recommendations for welfare of linguistic minorities in Meghalaya.
The petitioner has sought reliefs for development and welfare of persons belonging to linguistic minority communities.
In the linguistic profile of Meghalaya, the report highlighted Khasi and Garo as dominant languages while also noting several other languages, including Bengali, Nepali, Hindi, and Assamese, among others, as spoken in the state.
The Commissioner made several recommendations, including translation and publication of rules, regulations, and notices in minority languages, designation of authority for grant of recognition and sanction of grants-in-aid to linguistic minority educational institutions, and maintenance of language preference registers in schools.
The high court has directed both state and central governments to report on the status of the Commissioner’s report and its recommendations before the next hearing.
