Over three years after it was made mandatory for commercial establishments to have name boards with Kannada covering 60% of the nameplate, and the rest 40% in English, activists allege that the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) has not effectively implemented it so far.
In 2019, the Kannada Development Authority’s (KDA) instructed the BBMP officials and the then Mayor to cancel the trade licences of establishments that have not given prominence to Kannada in their name boards.
Following this, an order was issued by the then BBMP Commissioner stating that 60% of the signage should be in Kannada. The order further said that the rule will apply to even those applying for new licences or renewals.
However, the BBMP has not effectively implemented the Kannada signage rules. Speaking to The Hindu, a senior BBMP official said: “The order was given on November 1, 2019, but it was not strictly implemented in the city. One of the reasons is that in the following months, the BBMP council was also dissolved, which led to there being no Mayor or council. No one was bothered about implementing the signage rule, and the order was sidelined”.
“It is mandatory for all establishments to have Kannada signage, but more often than not, the text is relegated to a small corner of the name board,” officials added.
Legal setback
Several attempts to ensure that shops and other commercial establishments use Kannada in their signage have repeatedly suffered a setback in Bengaluru.
Before the 2019 order, the BBMP in 2017 too issued an order on the topic of Kannada in name boards. The State government and the BBMP have often issued directives under Section 24A of the Karnataka Shops and Establishments Act, 1961, asking commercial establishments to ensure signboards in Kannada.
However, in 2018, a directive by the BBMP on Kannada boards in Bengaluru was challenged in the High Court. The reason was the legal grounds for such directives were weak and a 2014 directive was struck down by the Karnataka High Court in the same year.
In 2014, a prominent telecom service provider (TSP) and retail chain challenged the directive by BBMP in the High Court in 2014, which ruled that the Karnataka Shops and Establishments Act, 1961 was primarily concerned with labour issues, and set aside the directive.
In August, 2018, the BBMP’s directive was also issued under the same Act, again challenged in the High Court by the same retail chain that won legal victory in 2014.
Kannada activists says that the issue will only be solved by bringing in a dedicated law. Arun Javgal, organising secretary, Karnataka Rakshana Vedike, said: “The government is failing to implement the Kannada signage rules due to the lack of a dedicated law. This can be settled only by coming up with a law and it should be brought under the consumer affairs so that the law will be powerful”.
“More than half the people in Karnataka know to read only Kannada. Name boards must be in Kannada to serve them. Moreover, the rest who can read English also have a right to service in Kannada. It is a consumer right,” he argued.
Published - October 31, 2022 08:35 pm IST
