If Urdu is used then all 22 languages shall be used – Plea filed in Supreme Court

A Special Leave Petition challenging the Order of the Bombay High Court was filed by an elected member of the Municipal Corporation of Patur in the Akola District, before a Division Bench comprising of Justices Hemant Gupta and V Subramaniam of the Supreme Court challenging the Order of the Bombay High Court.

The Municipal Council of Amravati district in Maharashtra passed a resolution dated 14^th February 2020 stating that the name board of the Municipal Council Board shall consist the name of the Board written in two languages namely Marathi and Hindi. This Resolution was challenged before the Collector under Section 308 of the Maharashtra Municipal Councils, Nagpur Panchayats and Industrial Township Act, 1965 on the grounds that all communications and writings on boards shall be carried out in the Marathi Language only. The Collector passed an order dated 15^th December stating that Marathi language should only to be used in the Government Resolutions.

However, the Municipal Council filed a Revision Application before the Divisional Commissioner who was in agreement to the decision of the Municipal Council and passed an Order in its favour.

This Order was challenged in the Nagpur bench of the Bombay High Court wherein the order of the Divisional Commissioner was upheld and it was stated that name of the Municipal Council Board to be affixed on the new building of the Council shall be written first in the Language of the State i.e. Marathi and thereafter in Urdu.

The reason for using Urdu language on the board was stated that Urdu is a language mentioned in the VIIIth Schedule of the Constitution.

Advocates Kunal Cheema, Apoorv Shukla and Satyajeet Singh Raghuvanshi appearing for the Petitioner approached the Supreme Court challenging the decision of the Bombay High Court and argued that since the official language of the State if Marathi, if Urdu language is also used then the Board shall be painted in all Twenty – Two (22) languages stated in the Constitution.

The bench issued a notice returnable in four weeks time.