Shambasiv (n/a) 06 August 2009

Classical language status to tamil, telugu and kannada

Madras High Court has fixed August 17 for the final hearing on a petition challenging the Classical Language status accorded to Kannada language.

Though Kannada was accorded the classical language tag nine months ago, the official recognition of the status would take a while as this was subject to a writ petition filed by advocate R Gandhi in the Madras High Court.

The Public Interest Litigation (PIL), which challenged the very legality of the Constitution of the committee that recommended the classical language status to Kannada and Telugu languages, would come up for final hearing before first bench of the High Court.

Last week, the Centre filed an affidavit, providing a weak defence of its decision to accord classical status to Kannada and Telugu.

K V Dhananjay, advocate for TV anchor Deepak Thimmaiah, who has been impleaded in the case, said the affidavit was weak as it had failed to lay out the grounds on which Kannada was deservingly granted the classical language status.

Instead, the emphasis was on arguing that the PIL was not maintainable, he said.

When the matter came up for hearing on June 22, which lasted for four days, the Under Secretary in the Union Ministry of Culture argued in the affidavit that after going through the petitioner’s objections, it was evident that he was not qualified to question the legality of the move as he himself was not sufficiently literate.

Besides, notifications to the effect that the classical status has been accorded to the two languages were still be to issued, he contended.

The affidavit said the petitioner had filed the petition based on an apprehension that the committee constituted for the purpose might have recommended the granting of classical status to Kannada and Telugu. A writ petition filed on the basis of an apprehension could not be maintainable in law, it said.

‘Unless it’s shown that the decision of constituting the committee, as it now stands, is illegal or suffers from any procedural improprieties, the decision of constituting the committee cannot be faulted,’ it said.

If the court allows the petition, the state government won’t be able to challenge it in the Supreme Court, as it is not a party in the case.

Reply Follow

2 Replies

K.V.DHANANJAY (ADVOCATE) 06 August 2009

Hello. I am K.V.Dhananjay. The lawyer named in this article. I am really mystified by the fact that the article quotes me. In fact, I have not spoken to any person from this media. And I certainly do not think that the Counter Affidavit of the Central Government is weak.

In fact, the Counter Affidavit of the Central Government is exceptionally brilliant and the reason for my client, Deepak Thimaya to implead himself has nothing to do with the counter filed by the Central Government.

By the way, I also represent the Andhra Pradesh Official Language Commission in this matter. I would sincerely request the concerned news paper to delete the claim attributed to me.

I have great regard for the Officers of the Central Government who are involved in this case. I do not say this out of fear of isolating them. I say this out of affection for these Officers.

Anil Agrawal (Retired) 13 August 2009

Since Bombay became Mumbai, Calcutta became Kolkata and Madras became Chennai (now New Delhi to become Dilli), all our ills of poverty, health care, food, roads, electricity, water, education have disappeared. They started disappearing soon after the English left India and we started renaming everything under the sun after our leaders, their wives and children and great-grand children.

India is a great country. All the States are using their regional language in administration and sending replies in their State language to people staying in other States. We are paying the price for creating linguistic States and in turn creating Satraps who foment regionalism. If all the languages are declared classical language, everything will be hunky dory in this country.