THE COMMITTEE OF
PARLIAMENT ON OFFICIAL LANGUAGE
Mahatma Gandhi,
in his address to the Gujrat Education Conference at Bharuch
in 1917 had stressed the need of a national language and
expressed that Hindi is the only language which could be
adopted as national language because this is a language
spoken by majority of the Indians. It has the potential of
being used as an economic, religious and political
communication link. The Constitution makers had deliberated
the issue of Official Language in detail at the time of
framing the Constitution and it was decided that Hindi in
Devanagari script should be adopted as the official language
of the Union. This is the basis of declaring Hindi as the
Official Language of the Union under Article 343(1). At the
time of framing and adoption of the Constitution, it was
envisaged that English will continue to be used for
executive, judicial and legal purposes for an initial period
of 15 years i.e. till 1965. Besides, it was provided that
the President may authorise the use of Hindi language for
some specific purposes.
2. The
period of 15 years was prescribed after detailed
deliberation so that necessary arrangements could be made
for smooth language transition. The Constitution makers were
conscious that language transition in all the fields may not
be possible by 1965. They also had the farsight to allow the
use of English alongwith Hindi during the first 15 years.
3.
Article 351 of the Constitution speaks of the development of
Hindi as the Official Language of the Union. The framers of
the Constitution had envisaged that Hindi with the help of
other Indian Languages would evolve as a composite language,
capable of being accepted by people living in non Hindi
speaking regions.
4. In 1963, the
Official Languages Act was enacted providing for the
continued use of English even after the year 1965. The Act
also provided that the use of English for correspondence by
the Central Government with the States may be discontinued
only after the legislatures of all non-Hindi speaking States
passed resolutions for such discontinuance and after
considering these resolutions, the two Houses of Parliament
passed similar resolutions. The Act further provided that
in the interregnum, for certain specified purposes Hindi
alone may be used and for some other purposes both English
and Hindi be used. The Official Language Rules were framed
in 1976.
5. The said Act
inter alia provided for the setting up of a Committee
on Official Language to review the progress made in the use
of Hindi for the official purpose of the Union. Under
section 3 of the Official Languages Act 1963, this Committee
was to be constituted after ten years of the promulgation of
the Act. This Committee was set up in 1976 under section 4
of the Act. This Committee comprises of 30 members of
Parliament, 20 from Lok Sabha and 10 from Rajya Sabha.
Later, the Committee was reconstituted after the 1977, 1980,
1984, 1989, 1991, 1996, 1998, 1999 & 2004 Lok Sabha polls.
The functioning and activities of the Committee are
contained mainly in section 4 of the Official Language Act.
Section 4 of the Official Language Act is reproduced below
for ready reference:
“(1) After the
expiration of ten years from the date on which Section 3
comes into force, there shall be constituted a Committee on
Official Language, on a resolution to that effect being
moved in either House of Parliament with the previous
sanction of the President and passed by both Houses.
(2) The Committee
shall consist of thirty members, of whom twenty shall be
members of the House of the people and ten shall be members
of the Council of States to be elected respectively by the
members of the House of the People and the members of the
Council of States in accordance with the system of
proportional representation by means of the single
transferable vote.
(3) It
shall be the duty of the Committee to review the progress
made in the use of Hindi for the Official purposes of the
Union and submit a report to the President making
recommendations thereon and the President shall cause the
report to be laid before each House of Parliament and sent
it to all the State Governments.
(4) The President
may, after consideration of the report referred to in sub
section (3), and the views, if any, expressed by the State
Governments thereon, issue directions in accordance with the
whole or any part of the report:
Provided that the
directions so issued shall not be inconsistent with the
provisions of Section 3”.
6.
The Chairman of the Committee is elected by the members of
the Committee. As a convention, the Union Home Minister has
been elected as Chairman of the Committee from time to time.
7. The Committee
is required to submit its report alongwith its
recommendations to the President after reviewing the
position regarding the use of Hindi in Central Government
Offices on the basis of its observations. Apart from
adopting other methods for assessing the factual position,
the Committee decided to inspect certain Central Government
offices representing various fields of activities to
motivate the Central Govt. offices to adopt maximum usage of
Hindi so that the objectives of the Constitution and
Official Language Act provisions could be achieved. With
this end in view, the Committee set up three sub-Committees
and for the purpose of inspection by the three
sub-Committees, the various Ministries/Departments etc. were
divided into three different groups. Till date, these three
sub- Committees have inspected 8649 Government of India
offices situated in the country and some of those located
abroad.
8. Further, in
order to assess the use of Official Language for various
purposes and other matters connected therewith, it was also
decided to invite eminent persons from various fields such
as from education, judiciary, voluntary organizations and
the Secretaries of the Ministries/Departments etc., for oral
evidence. So far about 826 eminent personalities from
various fields tendered their evidence before the Committee.
9 The progressive
use of Hindi in the Central Government offices is being
reviewed by the Committee in the background of the
provisions relating to Official Language as provided by the
Constitution; the Official Language Act, 1963 and the Rules
framed thereunder. The Committee also takes note of the
circulars/instructions etc. issued by the Government in this
regard from time to time. The terms of reference of the
Committee being comprehensive, it has also been examining
other relevant aspects like the medium of instructions in
schools, colleges and the universities; mode of recruitment
to Central Government services and medium of departmental
examination etc. Taking into consideration the magnitude of
various aspects of the Official Language policy and keeping
in view the present circumstances, the Committee in its
meeting held in June, 1985 and August, 1986 decided to
present its report to the President in parts; each part
relating to a particular aspect of the Official Language
policy.
10. The
Committee, in the first part of the report, decided to go
into the translation arrangements and various aspects
thereof in the offices of the Central Government and make
recommendations thereon. Accordingly, the Committee
submitted to the President in January, 87 the first part of
its report relating to translation arrangements in offices
of the Central Government. After placing the Report on the
table of the two Houses of Parliament and sending it to the
State Governments, the Government has taken necessary action
on the recommendations made in this part of the Report. In
this connection, the Presidential orders have already been
issued by the Department of Official Language on 30th
Dec., 1998.
11. The second part of the Report
pertaining to the use of Hindi and English in the mechanical
aids in the Central Government Offices was submitted to the
President in July, 87. This report has also been laid on
the table of the two Houses of Parliament and necessary
action on the recommendations made therein has been taken by
the Government. The Presidential orders in this connection
have also been issued by the Department of Official Language
on 29th March, 1990.
12. The third part of the Report of the
Committee relating to arrangements for teaching of Hindi to
Central Government employees and training of Central
Government employees through the medium of Hindi etc. was
presented to the President in February, 89. The
Presidential orders in this connection have been issued by
the Department of Official Language 4th Nov.,
1991.
13.
The fourth part of the Report relating to the
position of use of Hindi in the Government offices and
undertakings in the various parts of the country on the
basis of the inspections conducted by the three sub-
Committees of the Committee was submitted to the President
in November, 89. The Presidential orders have been issued
in this connection by the Department of Official Language on
28th January, 1992.
14. The
fifth part of the Report presented by the Committee relates
to the language of legislation and the language being used
in various courts and tribunals etc. The said part was
submitted to the President in March, 92. Presidential
orders have been issued in this connection by the Department
of Official Language on 24th Nov. 1998.
15. The
sixth part of the Report of the Committee was presented to
the President on 27th November, 97. This part is
regarding the progress made in the use of Hindi in the
Central Government Offices and use of Hindi in the
correspondence between Union and State Governments and Union
and Union Territories and use of Official Language in
correspondence between States and Union Territories.
Besides, position regarding use of Hindi in Central
Government Offices located abroad has also been reviewed in
this part. The Presidential order on this report have been
issued by Department of Official Language on 17th
Sep., 2004.
16. The Committee has submitted the
seventh part of its report to the Hon’ble President on 3rd
May,2002. In this part of the report, Committee has made
recommendations regarding Propagation of Hindi for official
purposes; the position of Hindi in the field of Law;
original use of Hindi in Government work; availability of
publications relating to Administration and Finance in
Hindi; position emerging after discussion with
representatives of the States and UTs; The status of Hindi
in the perspective of Globalization and the challenge of
Computerization to Hindi etc. Presidential orders on this
report have been issued by the Deptt. of Official Language
on 13th July, 2005.
17. On 16.08.2005 the Committee of
Parliament on Official Language submitted the Eighth Part of
the Committee’s Report to the Hon’ble President. The Eighth
Part of the Report submitted by the Committee consists of
four Sections. The first Section sheds light on the
constitution and activities of the Committee of Parliament
on Official Language; the follow up action taken on the last
seven parts of its Report and an outline of the Eighth Part.
In the second Section of the report an analysis has been
made of the information obtained during the inspections
conducted by the Committee from 01 January, 2002 to 31
March, 2005. It includes a Ministry-wise and Region-wise
evaluation of the position of compliance of Section 3(3) of
Official Language Act. 1963, Rule 5 of Official Language
Rules, 1976, Presidential Orders in respect of
correspondence in Hindi, Publication, Codes/Manuals and
Training etc. In addition, a summary of the discussion held
by the Drafting and Evidence Sub-Committee with various Town
Official Language Implementation Committees has also been
presented. In the third and important Section of the Report,
the Committee, on the basis of its experience, has reviewed
the position of purchase of Hindi Books, Computerization,
provision in the Recruitment Rules for compulsory knowledge
of Hindi, position of Hindi posts, availability of Hindi
medium in the educational and training institutes,
expenditure on Hindi advertisements in the Central Offices
and use of Hindi in the commercial activities of the Public
Sector Enterprises. In the fourth Section of the Report, the
Committee has presented its recommendations on the basis of
the conclusions drawn by it in the chapters included in the
first three Sections of the Report.
18. The Secretariat of the Committee is
located at 11, Teen Murti Marg, New Delhi. The Secretariat
is headed by the Secretary of the Committee. The Secretary
is assisted by the three officers of the level of Under
Secretary and other officials. They extend all required
assistance in performing the various activities of the
Committee. For administrative purposes this office is
subordinate office of Department of Official Language,
Ministry of Home Affairs.
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