Meghalaya High Court Seeks Status Of Report On Linguistic Minority In State
The Meghalaya High Court on Monday (July 1) directed the Central and State governments to take instructions in a PIL seeking enforcement of the report prepared by the Commissioner for linguistic minority under the Ministry of Minority Affairs, dated March 29, 2016.
The division bench comprising the Chief Justice I.P. Mukerji and Justice W. Diengdoh was hearing a PIL by a registered society of individuals belonging to the linguistic minority of the State.
It was noted that the Government of India appointed a Commissioner for linguistic minority under the Ministry of Minority Affairs in furtherance of Article 350B of the Constitution of India. The said Commissioner in his Communication dated March 29, 2016 made the following directions with regard to the State of Meghalaya:
- The State Government needs to appreciate the present of the linguistic minorities and to ensure translation and publication of Rules, Regulations and Notices etc. in minority languages for the benefit of linguistic minorities, where the speakers constitute 15 percent or more of the District/Tehsil/Taluka/Municipality population.
- The State Government should revisit relevant Rules / Regulations / Guidelines and designate the Authority for the grant of recognition and sanction of grants-in-aid to the linguistic minority educational institutions.
- The State Government should ensure that Language Preference Registers' to record language preference of linguistic minority students are maintained in all the schools to facilitate inter-school adjustments so as to provide instructions in mother tongue/languages in the State.
- The State Government needs to institute wide publicity of the Safeguards and facilities available to the linguistic minorities so as to spread awareness among them in the State.
- The State Government is advised to set up a State Level Committee under the Chairmanship of the Chief Secretary to monitor the implementation of the Safeguards for the linguistic minorities in the State. Similarly, the District Level Committee under Chairmanship of the District Collector may also be instituted to ensure effective implementation of the Safeguards for the linguistic minorities.
The Court noted that in the said report a table was inserted specifying the languages spoken in the State, the number of speakers of each language and the percentage of the population speaking it. It was highlighted by the Court that a person belongs to linguistic minority if the language spoken by him is spoken by less than 15 percent of the population.
“Among the recommendations made by the Commissioner were that the State government should recognise minorities, provide grant-in-aid to their educational institutions after recognising them, apprise the community members of their right to obtain education, provide for post of teachers to teach the language special to the minority community, and maintain a record of all language courses started. The Government of Meghalaya was directed to take note of the suggestions in the report and take action accordingly,” the Court noted.
The Additional Advocate General (AAG) submitted that under Article 350B, the Special Officer cannot claim to be the absolute authority. It was argued that after preparing the report, the Special Officer has the duty to route it to the President of India for his approval. Thereafter, the President is to cause the file to be placed before the Houses of Parliament and send it to the State governments. The AAG further submitted that the policy decision is of 2016 and he is not aware whether the report has been laid before the Houses of Parliament or any further action taken.
The Senior Advocate appearing for the petitioner submitted that the Meghalaya government should immediately constitute a Board for linguistic welfare in terms of the said report/recommendations of the Commissioner dated March 29, 2016.
“At the moment, we direct learned counsel for Union of India and State to take suitable instructions in the matter with regard to the status of the report of the Commissioner dated 29th March, 2016 and report to this Court before the returnable date,” the Court directed.
The matter is listed again on July 10.
Case Title: Meghalaya Linguistic Minority v. State of Meghalaya & Ors Development Forum
Case No.: PIL No. 4/2025