R.GANDHI Vs. THE SECRETARY TO THE GOVERNMENT

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Language is the medium of communication of one's thoughts. India, as a Country, is rich in Heritage and Languages. It is said that there are about 325 languages and 24 scripts in India! Some languages have had longer history and a vast literature. Tamil is one such language.

(2.) The Union of India took a policy decision to confer Classical status to eminent languages and laid down criteria for classification of a language as "Classical Language". The initial notification laying down the criteria was issued on 12.10.2004, with the subsequent corrigendum notification dated 29.10.2004 and thereafter, a notification dated 25.11.2005. Tamil, being one of the oldest among the contemporary languages in use now, was the first language to be declared as a Classical Language, soon followed by Sanskrit. On declarations of other languages as classical languages i.e., Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam and Odiya, the petitioner, a senior advocate of this Court, seems to have a grievance and has filed these public interest litigations challenging the declarations. In a nutshell, what he seeks to agitate is that the criteria meant for classification of a language, as a Classical Language, is not met by the other languages and that only Tamil and Sanskrit could be categorized as Classical Languages. He, thus, pleads that the categorization of other languages as Classical Languages is illegal, and seeks to dilute the benefit of such classification of Tamil.

(3.) In order to appreciate the factual controversy relating to the issuance of the notifications, we consider it appropriate to reproduce the notification dated 12.10.2004, which reads as under: -