SHILLONG, July 1: The High Court of Meghalaya has directed the Union of India and the state government to take suitable instructions and report on the status of the Commissioner for Linguistic Minorities’ recommendations regarding the welfare and rights of linguistic minorities in Meghalaya.
Hearing a PIL filed by the Meghalaya Linguistic Minority Development Forum, the division bench comprising Chief Justice IP Mukerji and Justice W. Diengdoh asked the Centre and the State to clarify the steps taken on the Commissioner’s report dated March 29, 2016, before the next hearing.
During the hearing, the petitioner’s counsel, senior advocate K. Paul, argued that the Meghalaya government should immediately constitute a board for linguistic welfare as recommended in the report.
The recommendations include recognising linguistic minorities, granting aid to their educational institutions, maintaining language preference registers in schools and publicising safeguards and facilities available for linguistic minorities in the state.
Appearing for the State, Additional Advocate General K. Khan submitted that under Article 350B of the Constitution, the Special Officer for Linguistic Minorities must route reports through the President, who then places them before Parliament before they are sent to state governments.
He stated that he was unaware if the report had been placed before Parliament or if further action had been taken.
The court observed that the matter would proceed step-by-step and directed the Centre and the State to report on the status before the returnable date.
The matter will be taken up again on July 10, 2025.
