Supreme Court dismisses PIL seeking inclusion of Rajasthani as official language under Constitution

The Supreme Court on Friday dismissed a public interest litigation (PIL) seeking the inclusion of Rajasthani as an official language under the Indian Constitution..A Bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) DY Chandrachud and Justices PS Narasimha and Manoj Misra asserted that such a decision falls within the purview of the government, rather than the judiciary."Supreme Court cannot issue directions here. Government has to take a call in this regard," the Court said..The plea sought the inclusion of Rajasthani under the Eighth Schedule of the Indian Constitution.Counsel for the Central government relied on the Supreme Court's decision in Kanhaiya Lal Sethia and Anr v. Union Of India and Anr to assert that whether or not a language should be included in the Schedule was a policy decision.The Court was in agreement with this view, saying,"Relief being sought is to include Rajasthani language in the Eighth Schedule. Advocate for respondent has placed on record our judgment in Kanhaiya Lal Sethia 1997 case. We are in agreement with the view. Whether a language should be included is a policy decision. We decline to entertain the petition.".Advocate Ripudaman Singh for the petitioners contended that the judgment was not applicable to this case. He claimed that the Central government's policy also was in his favour and that the issue was pending for more than 70 years.The Court said that since the policy of the Union was in the petitioner's favour, it could not pass directions. Further, it emphasized that there might be other languages with similar claims and maintained that certain decisions, particularly those related to the democratic polity, should be made by the executive branch.Accordingly, the Court dismissed the plea.