PIL filed based on 2016 report of Commissioner of Linguistic Minorities
Shillong, July 2: The Meghalaya High Court has directed the Centre and state government to submit a report on the status of a report containing recommendations for welfare of linguistic minorities in Meghalaya.
The report submitted by Commissioner for Linguistic Minorities in 2016 highlighted linguistic profile of Meghalaya, with Khasi and Garo being the dominant languages. It also noted that several other languages, including Bengali, Nepali, Hindi, and Assamese, are also spoken in the state.
The High Court passed the order after hearing a PIL filed by Meghalaya Linguistic Minority Development Forum seeking relief for development and welfare of linguistic minority communities in the state.
Earlier, the Commissioner had 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.
After hearing the matter, the division bench comprising Chief Justice IP Mukerji and Justice W Diengdoh directed the Centre and the State government to report on the status of the Commissioner’s report and its recommendations before the next hearing on July 10.
The petitioner’s counsel has urged the Court to direct the Meghalaya government to constitute a Board for linguistic welfare in terms of the Commissioner’s recommendations.
The State government’s counsel has pointed out that the Special Officer for Linguistic Minorities cannot claim to be the absolute authority, and the report needs to be routed to the President of India for approval before being placed before the Houses of Parliament.
The Court has asked the Centre and the State government to take suitable instructions on the matter and report back to the Court.
