Meghalaya High Court
Meghalaya Linguistic Minority vs . State Of Meghalaya & Ors on 1 July, 2025
Author: W. Diengdoh
Bench: W. Diengdoh
Serial No.01
Daily List
HIGH COURT OF MEGHALAYA
AT SHILLONG
PIL No.4/2025
Date of Order :01.07.2025
Meghalaya Linguistic Minority Vs. State of Meghalaya & ors
Development Forum
Coram:
Hon'ble Mr. Justice I.P. Mukerji, Chief Justice
Hon'ble Mr. Justice W. Diengdoh, Judge
Appearance:
For the Petitioner : Mr. K. Paul, Sr.Adv with
Mr. S. Chanda, Adv
For the Respondents : Mr. K. Khan, AAG with
Mr. A.H. Kharwanlang, Add.Sr.GA
Mr. A.H. Hazarika, GA
Ms. S. Laloo, GA
F
i) Whether approved for Yes/No
reporting in Law journals etc.:
ii) Whether approved for publication Yes
in press:
Note: For proper public information and transparency, any media
reporting this judgment is directed to mention the composition of
the bench by name of judges, while reporting this judgment/order.
The petitioner is a registered society of individuals belongs to the
linguistic minority of this State. The members of the society profess to be
interested in the development and welfare of persons of this community
and seek reliefs in that direction.
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Mr. K. Paul, learned Senior Advocate appearing for the petitioner
submits that all the respondents have been served. However, only the State
respondent Nos.1 to 5 represented by Mr. Khan, learned Additional
Advocate General are represented in Court.
Let a fresh notice be issued by the Advocate-on-Record for the
petitioner on the respondent Nos.6 and 7 and a supplementary affidavit of
service be filed in this Court.
As long ago as on 1st November, 1956, Article 350B was inserted in
the Constitution of India. It is in the following terms:
“350B. Special Officer for linguistic minorities.-(1) There shall be
a Special Officer for linguistic minorities to be appointed by the
President.
(2) It shall be the duty of the Special Officer to investigate all matters
relating to the safeguards provided for linguistic minorities under this
Constitution and report to the President upon those matters at such
intervals as the President may direct, and the President shall cause all
such reports to be laid before each House of Parliament, and sent to
the Governments of the State concerned.”
Further to this provision, the Government of India appointed a
Commissioner for linguistic minority under the Ministry of Minority
Affairs. In his communication dated 29th March, 2016, the Commissioner
remarked as follows with regard to the State of Meghalaya (see pages 145
and 146 of this petition):
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“LINGUISTIC PROFILE
18.1 The Census-2001 registered the population of Meghalaya as
23, 18,822 persons and its broad linguistic profile is as follows:
Languages Speakers Percentage
Khasi 10,91,087 47.05
Garo 7,28,242 31.41
Bengali 1,85,692 8.01
Nepali/Gorkhali 52,155 2.25
Hindi 50,055 2.16
Assamese 36,576 1.58
Rabha 22,395 0.97
Koch 20,834 0.90
RECOMMENDATIONS
a. The State Government needs to appreciate the present of the
linguistic minorities and to ensure translation and publication of
Rules, Regulations and Notices etc. in minority languages for the
benefit of linguistic minorities, where the speakers constitute 15 per
cent or more of the District/Tehsil/Taluka/Municipality population.
b. The State Government should revisit relevant Rules / Regulations /
Guidelines and designate the Authority for the grant of recognition
and sanction of grants-in-aid to the linguistic minority educational
institutions.
e. The State Government should ensure that Language Preference
Registers’ to record language preference of linguistic minority
students are maintained in all the schools to facilitate inter-school
adjustments so as to provide instructions in mother
tongue/languages in the State.
g. The State Government needs to institute wide publicity of the
Safeguards and facilities available to the linguistic minorities so as
to spread awareness among them in the State.
h. The State Government is advised to set up a State Level Committee
under the Chairmanship of the Chief Secretary to monitor the
implementation of the Safeguards for the linguistic minorities in the
State. Similarly, the District Level Committee under thePage 3 of 5
Chairmanship of the District Collector may also be instituted to
ensure effective implementation of the Safeguards for the linguistic
minorities.”
In this report the above table was inserted specifying the languages
spoken in the State, the number of speakers of each language and the
percentage of the population speaking it. A person belongs to linguistic
minority if the language spoken by him is spoken by less than 15 per cent
of the population. Among the recommendations made by the
Commissioner were that the State government should recognise minorities,
provide grant-in-aid to their educational institutions after recognising them,
apprise the community members of their right to obtain education, provide
for post of teachers to teach the language special to the minority
community, and maintain a record of all language courses started. The
Government of Meghalaya was directed to take note of the suggestions in
the report and take action accordingly.
Mr. Khan, learned AAG appearing for the respondent Nos.1 to 5
pointed out Article 350B and submitted that under this Article, the Special
Officer cannot claim to be the absolute authority. After preparing the
report, the Special Officer has the duty to route it to the President of India
for his approval. Thereafter, the President is to cause the file to be placed
before the Houses of Parliament and send it to the State governments. He
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submits that this policy decision is of 2016. He is not aware whether the
report has been laid before the Houses of Parliament or any further action
taken.
Mr. Paul, learned Senior Advocate for the petitioner submits that the
Meghalaya government should immediately constitute a Board for
linguistic welfare in terms of the said report/recommendations of the
Commissioner dated 29th March, 2016.
We have to move step by step in the matter.
At the moment, we direct learned counsel for Union of India and
State to take suitable instructions in the matter with regard to the status of
the report of the Commissioner dated 29th March, 2016 and report to this
Court before the returnable date.
List this public interest litigation on 10th July, 2025.
(W. Diengdoh) (I.P. Mukerji)
Judge Chief Justice
Meghalaya
01.07.2025
"Lam DR-PS"
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