Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, July 8: In a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) seeking direction to the respondents to declare Hindi as the official language of Jammu and Kashmir or one of the languages in use in the UT in terms of Section 47 of the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganization Act 2019, Division Bench of High Court comprising Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice Sanjay Dhar today issued notices to Commissioner/ Secretaries of General Administration, Law, Home and Revenue Departments with the direction to file the reply.
Advocates Priyanshu Sharma and Aditya Sharma appearing on behalf of the petitioner submitted that right from the very inception of erstwhile State of J&K the commonly used languages in the province of Jammu are Dogri and Hindi.
“In all the Government and private schools in Jammu province, Hindi language has remained a compulsory subject up to 10th standard and Urdu as an optional subject. Also the people of Jammu have become constant victim of this language barrier which has been slapped over them by the administration in the erstwhile J&K State”, they submitted.
“This discrimination is in force right from the day of accession of J&K and is still holding its feet even after the abrogation of Article 370. The revenue and police record is in Urdu language because of which the people of Jammu province have to be at the receiving end”, the petitioner further submitted, adding “even as per the High Court Rules, a translated copy is required to be submitted which makes it difficult for the judiciary as well as the people”.
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