Article 343 (1) of the Constitution provides that Hindi in Devanagari script shall be the official language of the Union. Article 343 (2) also provides for continuing the use of English in official work of the Union for a period of 15 years (i.e., up to January 25, 1965) from the date of commencement of the Constitution. Article 343 (3) empowered the Parliament to provide by law for continued use of English for official purposes even after January 25, 1965. The Act also lays down under Section 3 (3) that both Hindi and English shall compulsorily be used for a certain specified purpose such as resolutions, general Orders, Rules, Notifications, Administrative and other Reports, Press Communiques; Administrative and other reports and official papers to be laid before a House or the Houses of Parliament; contracts, agreements, licences, permits, tender notices and forms of tender, etc.
With a view to ensuring compliance of the constitutional and legal provisions regarding official language and to promote the use of Hindi for the official purposes of the Union, the Department of Official Language was set up in 1975 as an independent department of the Ministry of Home Affairs. Since then, this Department has been making efforts for accelerating the progressive use of Hindi for the official purposes of the Union. In accordance with the Government of India (Allocation of Business) Rules, 1961, this Department has been entrusted with the following items of work that include:- co-ordination in all
matters relating to the progressive use of Hindi as the Official Language of the Union, including administrative terminology, syllabi, textbooks, training courses and equipment (with a standardised script) required therefor; matters relating to the Kendriya Hindi Samiti and the Central Translation Bureau, etc.
In 1976, Official Language Rules were framed under the provisions of Section 8 (1) of the Official Languages Act, 1963 as amended in 1967.
Salient features of the rules are as under:
(i) They apply to all central government offices, including any office of a Commission, Committee or Tribunal appointed by the central government and corporation or company-owned or controlled by the central government except for Tamil Nadu;
(ii) Communications from a central government office to state/union territories or to any person in the region ‘A’ comprising Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Rajasthan, Haryana and union territories of Andaman and Nicobar Islands and Delhi, shall be in Hindi;
(iii) Communications from a central government office to states/union territories in region ‘B’ comprising Punjab, Gujarat, Maharashtra and the union territory of Chandigarh, Daman and Diu and Dadra and Nagar Haveli shall ordinarily be in Hindi and if any communication is issued to any of them in English, it shall be accompanied by a Hindi translation thereof;
(iv) Communications from a central government officer to state or union territory in Region ‘C’ or to any office (not being a central government office) or person in such state shall be in English; and
(v) Communications between central
government offices in region ‘C’ to a state or union territory of Region ‘A’ or Region ‘B’ or to any office (not being a central government office) or persons in such state may be either in Hindi or English.