Constitutional Guarantees to Linguistic Minorities

In one line

Six provisions, and they do six different things: conserve a language, admit a child, establish a school, petition the State, be taught in the mother tongue, and be watched over by an officer.

In the wording a student can write in an exam: the constitutional guarantees to linguistic minorities are contained in six provisions. Article 29(1) gives any section of the citizens having a distinct language, script or culture of its own the right to conserve it. Article 29(2) forbids the denial of admission to a State-maintained or State-aided educational institution on grounds only of religion, race, caste, language or any of them. Article 30(1) gives all minorities, whether based on religion or language, the right to establish and administer educational institutions of their choice, with articles 30(1A) and 30(2). Article 347 permits the President to direct the official recognition within a State of a language spoken by a substantial proportion of its population. Article 350 entitles every person to submit a representation for the redress of a grievance in any language used in the Union or the State. Article 350A directs facilities for instruction in the mother tongue at the primary stage, and article 350B creates a Special Officer for Linguistic Minorities.

Article 29(1): conserving a language, a script or a culture

The text. Any section of the citizens residing in the territory of India or any part thereof having a distinct language, script or culture of its own shall have the right to conserve the same.

Three things to notice, and they are all examinable. The right belongs to "any section of the citizens" and not only to a minority. The three protected things are language, SCRIPT and culture, in the alternative. And the right is to "conserve", which the courts have read as including the right to agitate for the language and to educate in it.

Facts. D.A.V. College v. State of Punjab, AIR 1971 SC 1731, (1971) 2 SCC 269, decided 5 May 1971 by Jaganmohan Reddy J with Sikri CJ, Mitter, Hegde and Grover JJ. Colleges founded by the D.A.V. College Trust and Society, an association of the Arya Samaj, had been compulsorily affiliated to Punjabi University. Acting under section 4(3) of the Punjabi University Act 1961, the University issued circulars in 1970 making Punjabi the sole medium of instruction and examination.

Held. The circulars were struck down as invalid and ultra vires the powers vested in the University. Having compulsorily affiliated these colleges, the University had of necessity to cater to their needs and allow them to administer their institutions in their own way, to impart instruction in their own medium and to write examinations in their own script. The action was beyond the power conferred by section 4(3) and infringed the right to conserve a script under article 29(1) and to administer institutions under article 30(1).