Varshatai Sanjay Bagade vs State Of Maharashtra 2025 INSC 486 - Maharashtra Local Authorities (Official Languages) Act - Language - Marathi - Urdu

Constitution of India - Schedule VIII - Maharashtra Local Authorities (Official Languages) Act, 2022 - There is no prohibition on the use of Urdu under the 2022 Act or in any provision of law- If people or a group of people, residing within the area covered by the Municipal Council are familiar with Urdu, then there should not be any objection if Urdu is used in addition to the official language i.e. Marathi, at least on the signboard of the Municipal Council. Language is a medium for exchange of ideas that brings people holding diverse views and beliefs closer and it should not become a cause of their division. (Para 46) - The use of language for official purposes is not according to any rigid formula. (Para 40) - Marathi and Urdu occupy the same position under Schedule VIII of the Constitution of India (Para 15)

Language - Language is not religion. Language does not even represent religion. Language belongs to a community, to a region, to people; and not to a religion- Language is culture. Language is the yardstick to measure the civilizational march of a community and its people.(Para 17 -18) We must respect and rejoice in our diversity, including our many languages. India has more than hundred major languages (Para 20) Urdu - Urdu, like Marathi and Hindi, is an Indo-Aryan language. It is a language which was born in this land. Urdu developed and flourished in India due to the need for people belonging to different cultural milieus who wanted to exchange ideas and communicate amongst themselves. Over the centuries, it attained ever greater refinement and became the language of choice for many acclaimed poets. (Para 27) Even today, the language used by the common people of the country is replete with words of the Urdu language, even if one is not aware of it. It would not be incorrect to say that one cannot have a day-to-day conversation in Hindi without using words of Urdu or words derived from Urdu. The word ‘Hindi’ itself comes from the Persian word ‘Hindavi’! This exchange of vocabulary flows both ways because Urdu also has many words borrowed from other Indian languages, including Sanskrit. (Para 37) Urdu words have a heavy influence on Court parlance, both in criminal and civil law. From Adalat to halafnama to peshi, the influence of Urdu is writ large in the language of the Indian Courts. For that matter, even though the official language of the Supreme Court and the High Courts as per Article 348 of the Constitution is English, yet many Urdu words continue to be used in this Court till date. These include vakalatnama, dasti, etc. (Para 38) - When we criticize Urdu, we are in a way also criticizing Hindi, as according to linguists and literary scholars, Urdu and Hindi are not two languages, but it is one language. True, Urdu is mainly written in Nastaliq and Hindi in Devnagri; but then scripts do not make a language. What makes languages distinct is their syntax, their grammar and their phonology. Urdu and Hindi have broad similarities in all these counts. (Para 41)

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