HC upholds Maharashtra authorities’s rule for retailers to show names in Marathi

By PTI

MUMBAI: The Bombay High Court on Wednesday stated the Maharashtra authorities’s rule mandating outlets and institutions to show their names in Marathi (Devanagari script) language was affordable and refused to quash it.

A division bench of Justices Gautam Patel and Madhav Jamdar dismissed a petition filed by the Federation of Retail Traders and imposed a price of Rs 25,000 on it.

The courtroom in its order famous that there was no bar on utilizing every other language of their show board and the rule solely mandated the store’s title to be displayed in Marathi.

The petition had challenged an modification to the Maharashtra Shops and Establishments (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Act, 2017, as per which all outlets and institutions must show signboards of their names in Marathi, the font of which shall be the identical as that of the opposite script and never smaller.

The federation stated this was in violation of Articles 13 (Laws inconsistent with or in derogation of the basic rights), 19 (Protection of sure rights concerning freedom of speech) and 21 (Protection of life and private liberty) of the Constitution of India.

The petitioner’s advocate, Mayur Khandeparkar, argued that the state authorities had adopted Marathi as its official language for its personal use.

The authorities can’t foist any language on its residents, he argued.

The bench then questioned as to how the petitioner’s elementary rights have been violated when the federal government was not imposing a bar on anybody from utilizing every other language.

“If the rule said that you have to use only Marathi, then it would have been a matter of discussion. Here you can use any other language as well as there is no bar,” Justice Patel stated.

Justice Jamdar stated the rule was for the comfort of Maharashtra’s public at massive, whose mom tongue is Marathi.

“What the petitioner fails to recognise is that this requirement is not meant for retail traders, but meant for workers and public who approach them, who are more likely to be familiar with Marathi,” the courtroom stated.

“Marathi will be the official language of the state authorities, however additionally it is undeniably the widespread language and mom tongue of the state,” the HC stated.

The bench additionally questioned the motive behind submitting of the petition in 2022 when the modification was carried out in 2018.

“The rule was existing even prior to that (2018). Only its implementation was stayed,” Justice Patel stated.

“To say that there is some sort of invidious discrimination is wholly untrue. If a trader wishes to carry out trade in Maharashtra, then it must be subject to rules of the government which seek to impose uniformity on all,” the HC stated in its order.

The courtroom additional stated there have been some states in India which mandate using solely native language and script, which was not the case in Maharashtra.