Chennai: The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court on Thursday directed the Central government to follow the provisions of the Official Languages Act, 1963 strictly.
The High Court said that the Centre should reply in the language in which the state government sends the application to the Central government.
“Once a representation is given in English, it is the duty of the Union government to give the reply in English only,” the court said.
The directions by a division bench comprising Justices N Kirubakaran and M Duraiswamy came on a Public Interest
Litigation filed by Madurai Lok Sabha MP S. Venkatesh.
“Tamil Nadu has not set up an examination centre in Pondicherry for the written test to fill 780 vacancies in Group B and Group C. So I sent a letter on October 9 to the Ministry of Home Affairs asking them to set up at least one examination centre in these areas,” read the petition by Venkatesh.
“The Minister of State for Home Affairs had sent a reply in a letter written in Hindi on November 9. Thus I could not know what they were saying in it,” it said.