The Supreme Court of India, while rejecting a petition from Maharashtra challenging the usage of Urdu in municipality signboards, has claimed that Urdu originated in India and is an Indo-Aryan language, just like Hindi and Marathi.
The petition challenged a judgement by the Bombay High Court that had allowed the usage of Urdu signboards at the new municipal building in Patur, Akola district.
A bench of Justices Sudhanshu Dhulia and K Vinod Chandran held that displaying an additional language is not a violation of Maharashtra Local Authorities (Official Languages) Act, 2022 and Urdu cannot be prohibited.
The SC bench held that the purpose of using multiple languages in a signboard is merely ‘effective communication’ and linguistic diversity of the country must be respected by all.
The SC bench asserted that Urdu was born in India and flourished in India due to the cultural diversity of the country.
