The writ petition filed in the Madras High Court six years ago against the grant of classical language status to Kannada is set to get a final hearing in the second week of December, after years of being in abeyance.
R Gandhi, a senior lawyer in the Madras High Court, had filed the petition challenging the classical status to Kannada and Telugu.
The two languages were accorded the status on November 1, 2008.
He contended that the two languages could not be given the status of classical languages as they did not figure in the list of classical languages on international forum.
Final hearing on the petition will be taken up on December 9.
The petition, which had not been heard in a long time, came up for hearing on October 29, 2014, sa id Karthikeyan, the counsel representing the Karnataka government in the Madras High Court.
“I have asked for relevant documents to contest the case,” he told Deccan Herald.
Gandhi has argued that only Tamil and Sanskrit languages in India have been accorded classical status by the international forum.
“India will become the laughing stock of the world if any language, other than Tamil and Sanskrit, is accorded the classical status,” the petition stated, claiming that Kannada and Telugu had been given the status “only on political grounds.” He has sought the annulment of this status.
Way back in 2008, the Andhra Pradesh Official Language Commission on behalf of Telugu, and mediaperson Deepak Thimmaiah on behalf of Kannada impleaded in the petition to defend the classical language status for the two languages.
The counsel for both the petitioners, K V Dhananjay, submitted that the Union government had accorded the status after much persuasion by scholars of the two languages.
“Even if the petitioner is disappointed, he has no legal injury and the court has no jurisdiction to adjudicate the matter as this is a decision of the Centre,” the counsel said.
The court had kept the petition in abeyance and ruled that the classical status was subject to the result of the writ petition.
The Karnataka government, which has been criticised by Kannada activists for not doing enough to protect the classical language status, has finally appointed an advocate to argue its case.
“The last time the matter came up for hearing, I informed the government about it. But nothing was done. It is high time the government woke up before we lose the tag,” said the former chairman of Kannada Development Authority, ‘Mukhyamantri’ Chandru.
Advocate General Ravivarma Kumar confirmed that the government had asked him to plead its case in the Madras High Court but was yet to be briefed on the matter.
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