The Bench comprising of Justices N Kirubakaran and M Duraiswamy at the Madras High Court, recently adhering to the Official Languages Act 1963 and Official Languages Rules 1976 held that once a representation is given an English it is the duty of the Union Government to give a reply in English only.

Member of Parliament representing Madurai constituency approached the Court against the use of Hindi in the reply given to him person to the representation given by him with regard to non-notifying any centre in Tamil Nadu for the recruitment of 24 post of group B and C staff on all India basis for a total number of 780 declared vacancies.

The petitioner approached the Court by way of Public Interest Litigation seeking direction to ensure that the communication between the Union of India and the state of Tamil Nadu, its people and also the members of parliament shall be in English alone.

Counter affidavit was filed by the respondents admitting the provisions of the official languages and 1963 and the necessity to use English language in the communication between the Union and the state which has not adopted Hindi as official language.

It was however stated in Paragraph 6 that an inadvertent reply was submitted in Hindi and immediately an English version of the same was communicated to the Member of Parliament and there was no intention to violate the provisions of the.

The Court directed the Union Government other officers and instrumentalities to follow the provisions of Official Languages Act 1963 especially Section 3 of the Act and the Official Languages (Use for Official Purpose of the Union) Rules 1976.