The Madras High Court has asked central government officials to make replies in the same language as the application.
Citing the Official Languages Act, 1963, the court asked officials to “follow the provision strictly”, Mint reported.
“Once a representation is given in English, it is the duty of the Union government to give the reply in English only,” the bench said.
The statement came after Member of Parliament to Lok Sabha from Madurai S Venkatesh filed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) stating that a letter in English was sent to the Minister of State (MoS) for Home Affairs was replied to in Hindi, which he “could not understand”.
The PIL was regarding 780 vacancies in Group B and Group C of the examination center in Pondicherry for which a written test by the Tamil Nadu state government is pending.
“I sent a letter on October 9 to the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) asking them to set up at least one examination center in these areas. The MoS for Home Affairs sent a reply in a letter written in Hindi on November 9. Thus I could not know what they were saying in it," Venkatesh said.
Justices N Kirubakaran and M Duraiswamy of the bench said: “Answering in Hindi is a violation of the law. The people of Tamil Nadu have continued to respond in Hindi to letters sent to the central government. This is contrary to constitutional legal rights and the Official Languages Act of 1963.”
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