Quoting American author Oliver Wendell Holmes, who has said, “Every language is a temple, in which the soul of those who speak it is enshrined,” the Madras High Court on Monday disposed of a batch of public interest litigation petitions which challenged the classical language status accorded to Kannada, Telugu, Malayalam and Odia.
Making it clear that only experts can verify whether the languages satisfy the norms set for according the classical status, the First Bench of Chief Justice S.K. Kaul and Justice R. Mahadevan said, “Having been satisfied, they [the expert body] have recommended for declaration of the languages in consideration to be classical. The facts which made the expert body to recommend the promulgation of such declaration have also been placed before us … As such we do not find any reason to interfere with the impinged declaration.”
The Bench added that the court could not be converted into a forum for debate on such matters. If the petitioner still felt that the particulars furnished by the respective States would not satisfy the criteria, the Bench said: “It is open to them to approach the authorities. Similarly, they can also give suggestions for determination of the type of literature that can be the benchmark for qualification for consideration to the concerned authorities.” ‘Undue influence’ In 2008, soon after the Central government accorded the status to Kannada and Telugu, Chennai-based senior advocate R. Gandhi moved the High Court challenging the decision, alleging undue influence in the grant of status.
The court, through an interim order, said any decision taken by the committee set up by the Central government to consider grant of classical language status would be subject to the decision on the writ petition. Mr. Gandhi moved one more PIL in 2015 challenging the decision to confer the status for Malayalam and Odia.
Refusing to accept the petitioner’s contention that the prominence of the Tamil language would be lost if it was treated on a par with other languages that had been conferred classical status, the Bench said: “We do not agree with the petitioner. The prominence of a language would not depend on the development or fall of another language.”
L. Hanumanthaiah, Chairman of the Kannada Development Authority, said: “The verdict will help in taking forward the process of setting up the Centre of Excellence for Studies in Classical Kannada in Bengaluru and getting autonomous status on the lines of Central Institute of Classical Tamil with renewed enthusiasm.” ‘End of 8-year battle’ “I am happy that an eight-year-old battle has come to an end,” said former chairman of the Andhra Pradesh Official Language Commission and veteran journalist A.B.K. Prasad.
When contacted, Mr. Prasad, who lives in Hyderabad, Telangana, said he filed a counter in the Madras High Court when he was Chairman of the Official Language Commission. “I, in coordination with a Karnataka lawyer, gathered all the documents to strengthen our case,” Mr. Prasad said.
