SC Upholds Use of Urdu Signboards in Maharashtra

• 19 Apr 2025

Why in News? 

On 17 April 2025, the Supreme Court upheld the use of Urdu on the signboard of a municipal council building in Maharashtra’s Akola district, stating that a language belongs to a community, a region, and its people—not to any religion. 

 Key Points 

• About the Petition:  
  • The petition was filed by a former municipal councillor, who argued that only Marathi should be used under the Maharashtra Local Authorities (Official Languages) Act, 2022. 
• Equal Constitutional Status: 
  • The court ruled that both Urdu and Marathi enjoy equal constitutional recognition. 
  • It noted that the use of Urdu does not violate any legal provision and that the Municipal Council had been using it since 1956 due to its wide acceptance among the local population. 
  • The court denounced the colonial legacy of associating Hindi with Hindus and Urdu with Muslims. 
  • The court also observed that the Municipal Council used Urdu for effective communication with the local population, aligning with the Bombay High Court’s earlier reasoning. 

 Urdu 

• Historical Background 
  • Urdu had developed and flourished in Delhi during the period of ‘Delhi Sultanate’ from 12th to 16th century and then during the period of ‘Mughal Empire’ in Delhi from 16th century to 19th century when several court poets used this language in their great poetry and writings. 
    • Its first major folk poet Amir Khusrau (1253-1325), composed dohas (couplets) and riddles in the newly-formed speech, then called Hindavi. 
  • The divide between Urdu and Hindi occurred under the colonial impact. 
    • Hindi and Urdu got split along religious lines with Hindi in Nagari script becoming identified with Hindus, and Urdu in Persian script identifying with Muslims. 
  • Contemporary Context: Urdu is a major language of South Asia. 
  • It is spoken in countries including India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and Nepal. 
  • It has become the culture language and lingua franca of the South Asian Muslim diaspora outside the sub-continent, especially in the Gulf and the Middle East, Western Europe, Scandinavia, USA and Canada. 
• Status in India: 
  • Scheduled Language: Urdu is one of the languages mentioned in the 8th Schedule to the Constitution. 
  • The Constitutional provisions relating to the 8th Schedule are articles 344(1) and 351. 
  • Presently, 8th Schedule consists of the 22 languages namely (1) Assamese, (2) Bengali, (3) Gujarati, (4) Hindi, (5) Kannada, (6) Kashmiri, (7) Konkani, (8) Malayalam, (9) Manipuri, (10) Marathi, (11) Nepali, (12) Oriya, (13) Punjabi, (14) Sanskrit, (15) Sindhi, (16) Tamil, (17) Telugu, (18) Urdu (19) Bodo, (20) Santhali, (21) Maithili and (22) Dogri.