Making Marathi Signboards Mandatory Reasonable, No Violation Of Retailers' Fundamental Rights : Bombay High Court

"A Public purpose is sought to be achieved by the said Rule. There is a broader public purpose and rationale. Marathi may be the official language of the state government, but it is an undeniably common language and mother tongue of the state… It has its own extremely rich and diverse cultural traditions extending to every field of endeavour from literature to theatre and beyond. There are texts in Marathi which are expressed and written in Devanagri," the division bench of Justices Gautam Patel and Madhav Jamdar observed.

The bench, while rejecting a petition by Federation of Retail Trade on Wednesday, also imposed a cost of Rs 25,000 on the petitioner, which is to be deposited in the Chief Minister's Relief Fund within a week's time.

The petition argued 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. It also contended that the condition was in violation of Article 14 (right to equality before law), 19 (1) (a) (right to freedom of speech and expression) and Article 21 (right to personal liberty) of the Constitution, among others.

According to the petition, while Marathi is a constitutionally recognised language, Devanagri script is not and that Marathi can be written in many scripts without the compulsion of using a specific way. The government's lawyer opposed the petition.

The HC bench observed 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.

The court also said that the rights under Article 19 of the Constitution were not unfettered and contained reasonable restrictions.

The bench added that it was mindful of the fact 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 petition fails to recognise that this requirement is not meant to benefit retail traders, but it is meant for convenience and benefit of the workers and the public who approach them. These are persons, who in the estimation of the state government, as a matter of policy, are more likely to be familiar with Marathi in Devanagri script," the bench observed.

It 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. "It is a right of litigant before this court to put documents in the court in Marathi, unless translations are sought specifically," the bench further observed.

Citation: 2022 LiveLaw (Bom) 51

Click here to read/download the order