Part XVII - Official Language (Article 343 - 351)

Part XVII of the Constitution contains provisions for an official language for the Union, the states, the judiciary and to be used in inter-governmental communication. The official language of the union is Hindi in Devanagari script. The form of numerals to be used for official purposes of the union is the International form of Indian Numerals (Article 343 (1) of the Constitution). In addition to Hindi language, English language may also be used for official purposes. Business in parliament may be transacted in English or in Hindi. However the Honourable Chairman of the Rajya Sabha or the Honourable Speaker of the Lok Sabha may permit any member to address the House in his/her mother tongue under special circumstances (Article 12a of the Constitution). Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh have been granted the right to use Hindi in their High Court. Tamil Nadu uses Tamil in High Court. 

Languages in the Constitution: Assamese, Bengali, Hindi, Urdu, Marathi, Gujarati, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Kannada, Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada, Oriya, Sindhi, Konkani, Nepali, Manipuri, Bodo, Maithili, Santhali and Dogri.

Official Language (Article 343 - 351)

Language of the Union

Article 343: Official language of the Union.

Article 344: Commission and Committee of Parliament on official language.

Regional Languages

Article 345: Official language or languages of a State.

Article 346: Official language for communication between one State and another or between a State and the Union.

Article 347: Special provision relating to language spoken by a section of the population of a State.

Language of the Supreme Court, High Courts etc.

Article 348: Language to be used in the Supreme Court and in the High Courts and for Acts, Bills, etc.

Article 349: Special procedure for enactment of certain laws relating to language.

Special Directives

Article 350: Language to be used in representations for redress of grievances.

Article 350A: Facilities for instruction in mother-tongue at primary stage.

Article 350B: Special Officer for linguistic minorities.

Article 351: Directive for development of the Hindi language.