In a Public Interest Litigation seeking direction to Respondents to declare Hindi as the official language of the UT of Jammu and Kashmir or Hindi language as one of the language in use in the UT of Jammu and Kashmir in terms of Section 47 of the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganization Act 2019.
A Division Bench of J&K High Court Comprising Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice Sanjay Dhar after hearing Adv Priyanshu Sharma and Adv Aditya Sharma appeared on behalf of the Petitioner issued notices to Commissioner cum secretary, General Administrative Department, Government of Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir, Commissioner cum Secretary, Law,Justice and Parliamentary Affairs, Government of Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir, Prinicpal Secreatry, Home Department Union Territory of Jammu and Kahsmir and Financial Commissioner Revenue Department Jammu and Kahsmir and directed them to file reply.
During the course of hearing Counsel for the petitioner submitted that right from the very inception of erstwhile state of J&K the commonly used language in the Province of Jammu is dogri and Hindi. It is further submitted that all the govt.and pvt.schools in jammu province, hindu language has remained a compulsory subject upto 10th standard and urdu as a optional subject. Also the people of Jammu has become constant victim of this language barrier which has been slapped over them by the administration in the erstwhile j&I state.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 viz-a-viz,the J&K reorganization Act,2019. It was also pleased that our revenue record, police record everything is in Urdu language because of which the people of Jammu Province has to be at the receiving end always and even as per the High COurt Rules, a translated copy is required to be submitted which makes it difficult for judiciary as well as the people. JNF