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Varshatai v. State of Maharashtra

Civil Appeal · 2025 INSC 486Decided 15 Apr 2025
C.A. Nos.-005187-005188 of 2025 (Diary No. 24812 of 2024)
Justice Sudhanshu Dhulia · Justice K. Vinod Chandran

Background

A former member of the Patur Municipal Council in Maharashtra objected to the Council's signboard, which displayed the Council's name in Marathi with an Urdu translation below it: a practice in place since the Council's founding in 1956. The Municipal Council rejected her objection by resolution, and after a District Collector initially sided with her, the order was overturned on further appeal. She lost before the Bombay High Court twice (before and after Maharashtra passed a 2022 law making Marathi the official language of local bodies), and finally appealed to the Supreme Court, arguing Marathi alone could be used.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court held that the 2022 Maharashtra Local Authorities (Official Languages) Act requires Marathi to be used for official business but does not prohibit displaying an additional language alongside it, especially where a section of the local population understands that language. The Court undertook an extensive review of India's linguistic history and the constitutional treatment of Urdu (which sits alongside Marathi and Hindi in the Eighth Schedule), stressing that language is a tool of communication and culture, not religion, and that many Indian states already permit multiple official languages. Finding no legal violation, the Court dismissed the appeal and upheld the use of Urdu on the signboard alongside Marathi.

Lesson Learnt

A law requiring an official language does not automatically forbid the additional, voluntary use of another language recognised by the Constitution for the practical purpose of communicating with the local community: inclusion of a second language is not, by itself, unlawful discrimination against the official one.

Official source (sci.gov.in)View Judgment (PDF)

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