New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld the use of Urdu on a signboard of Maharashtra municipal council, saying that “language belongs to a community, to a region, to people; and not to a religion”. The top court also said that Urdu “is the finest specimen of Ganga-Jamuni tehzeeb, or the Hindustani tehzeeb”.
A bench comprising Justices Sudhanshu Dhulia and K Vinod Chandran declined to overturn the Bombay High Court’s ruling, which found no legal bar under the Maharashtra Local Authorities (Official Languages) Act, 2022, against the use of Urdu. “Let our concepts be clear. Language is not religion. Language does not even represent religion. Language belongs to a community, to a region, to people; and not to a religion.
Furthermore, the top court also said that language must be viewed as a marker of a community’s cultural and civilisational progress. “So is the case of Urdu, which is the finest specimen of ganga-jamuni tahzeeb, or the Hindustani tahzeeb, which is the composite cultural ethos of the plains of northern and central India. But before language became a tool for learning, its earliest and primary purpose will always remain communication,” the bench added.
“Our misconceptions, perhaps even our prejudices against a language, have to be courageously and truthfully tested against the reality, which is this great diversity of our nation. Our strength can never be our weakness,” it noted. If the residents of a particular region are familiar with Urdu, there is no valid reason to object to its presence on official boards, the top court held.
