The Supreme Court on Friday denied a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) that asked the court to order that Sanskrit become the official language of India. The Court ruled that the parliament, not the court, should be the appropriate body to consider the issue.
“Why should we publish a notice or make a PR declaration? Although we could agree with some of your viewpoints, parliament is the proper place to discuss this. The Constitution must be amended, the bench of Justices MR Shah and Krishna Murari ruled.
Sanskrit should be recognised as a national language, according to the petitioner’s attorney, because it is a mother tongue from which other languages have drawn inspiration. The top court rejected the argument and stated that the petitioner may be free to bring such a case to the government.
Your prayer is written in Sanskrit. Why should we declare or publish something for publicity? Although we could agree with some of your viewpoints, parliament is the proper place to discuss this. The Constitution needs to be amended, the Court ruled.
“We decline to consider the petition. Dismissed. The Court reiterated that it is against its policy to intervene, although counsel is free to make the proper representation before the relevant authorities.
Sanskrit was requested to be declared the national language in the PIL that former IAS official and attorney KG Vanzara submitted. The argument stated that “such a move will not violate the current Constitutional provisions which provide for English and Hindi as the country’s official languages.”
