The Supreme Court is set to examine whether State can issue directions to shopkeepers asking them to mandatorily make sign-boards in any particular langugae.
The Division Bench comprising of Justice KM Joseph and Justice Hrishikesh Roy issued Notice in plea assailing Maharashtra Government's decision of making it mandatory for all shops and establishments in the state to display signboards in Marathi written in the Devanagri script.
The petitioner-association has contended that there was no rationale in the State government's decision to impose the said condition and that the state's choice of language cannot be foisted on shops.
The High Court didn't agree to the same and stated that to say that there was some sort of invidious discrimination was wholly untrue.
"If any retailer wishes to carry out trade in Maharashtra, it shall be subject to conditions that the government seeks to impose uniformly on all. Clearly, there is no violation of Article 14 (Right to equality before law) of the Constitution," the court held.
It was of the opinion that 'reasonable restrictions' are part of Article 19 of the Constitution and remarked that the Bench is aware that in some parts of the country, there was a practice of not using any other script other than the local script but that was not the case here and that no other language was prohibited in Maharashtra.
The Court added that Devanagri-Marathi documents were permitted even in the High Court, unless translations are required by a particular bench or court, though the language of court was English.
The Apex Court shall now settle the issue of constitutional validity of such directory.
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