Supreme Court dismisses PIL for use of Hindi in SC, HC’s, nearly imposes cost of 1lac

The Supreme Court today dismissed a Public Interest Litigation petition seeking amendment of Article 348 of the Constitution for use of Hindi as official language of Supreme Court and High Courts..A Bench presided by Chief Justice TS Thakur also nearly imposed cost on the petitioner, Shiv Sagar Tiwari. In the end though, the Court cautioned Tiwari against filing such “frivolous” PILs. Interestingly, a Bench presided by the then Chief Justice, HL Dattu had issued notice in the matter in 2014..Tiwari in his petition had sought for a direction to be issued to the Centre to amend Article 348 to bring it in tune with Article 343. Article 343 provides for use of Hindi as official language of the Union while Article 348 provide for language to be used in Supreme Court and High Courts..The Court today heard Tiwari before dismissing the petition via a speaking order. It recorded that the use of English was permitted for the first 15 years after the Indian Constitution came into force, and thereafter by way of law, the same can be extended..Senior Advocate V Mohana appearing for Centre submitted that the use of English has been authorised by way of the Official Languages Act..The Court then proceeded to dismiss the case stating that,.“Apart from the fact that the prayer is fallacious, the petitioner has not carefully appreciated the scope of Articles 343 and 348.“.It then imposed a cost of Rs. 1 lakh on Tiwari but chose to withdraw the same after Tiwari’s request. The Court however, recorded in its order that petitioners should exercise caution before agitating such cases on Supreme Court..Justice Thakur remarked that “if costs are not imposed in such cases, someone will get the “bright” idea every morning to file such writ petitions seeking amendments to the Constitution.”