Mr. Nityanand Rai, Minister of State in the Ministry of Home Affairs informed Lok Sabha that recommendations of Committee, which was constituted under the chairmanship of Dr. Sitakant Mohapatra in the year 2003 to consider the issues relating to demands for inclusion of more languages in the Eighth Schedule to the Constitution with one of the Terms of References to study the feasibility of treating all 18 languages included in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution as Official Languages is followed.
The Committee in its report, inter-alia, recommended that the status quo should continue in regard to the recognition of the languages of the Eighth Schedule as Official Languages of the Union.
Minister for Home Affairs replied to an Unstarred Question stating that whether there is any intention of the Government to declare eighth schedule language also be an official language of Union.
As per Article 343 (1) of the Constitution of India, the official language of the Union shall be Hindi in Devanagari script. Article 351 of the Constitution also promotes the progressive use of Hindi language for the official purpose of the Union and to develop it as a medium of expression for all the elements of the composite culture of India. Article 345 provides that subject to the provisions of Article 346 and 347, the Legislature of a State may by law adopt any one or more of the languages in use in the State or Hindi as the language or languages to be used for all or any of the official purposes of that State.
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