The Bombay High Court has upheld Maharashtra Government’s decision to mandate Marathi signages on commercial establishments across the state. This came after the High Court quashed a petition filed by a retail traders association against the rule of the state government on February 23, 2022.
#BombayHC dismisses a petition filed by the retail traders association challenging mandatory Marathi signboards at their establishments across #Maharashtra.
— LawBeat (@LawBeatInd) February 23, 2022
HC held that, rule of mandatory Marathi signboards doesn’t violate provisions of Article 14 of the Indian Constitution.
The Federation of Retail Traders Welfare Association (FRTWA) had filed a writ petition in the Bombay High Court against the Maharashtra government’s rule. In January this year, the MVA government in Maharashtra passed a cabinet proposal asserting that all shops across the state should prominently display a signboard in Marathi. In 2017, a similar law was passed by the state government but its implementation did not go according to the rule.
The Bombay High Court upheld that rule of mandatory Marathi signboards doesn’t violate provisions of Article 14 of the Indian Constitution. The High Court observed, “Marathi is the mother tongue of Maharashtra and a rule for mandatory Marathi signboards outside any shop or other places can’t be termed discrimination,” The Court has imposed a fine of Rs 25,000/- on the petitioners, which is to be deposited in the Chief Minister’s Relief Fund. The decision comes a few days before the state celebrates Marathi Rajbhasha Din (Marathi Day) on February 27.
The Marathi signboards rule
In January 2021 the Shiv-Sena led MVA government in Maharashtra approved a rule mandating prominent Marathi typeface on signboards written in the Devanagari script outside all commercial establishments in Maharashtra. This itself was an amendment to the Maharashtra Shops and Establishments (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Act passed by the Devendra Fadnavis government in 2017. When the earlier rule was implemented, small Marathi nameplates were put against sized English letters on the boards.
The recent rule demands that letters in Marathi should be equal in size to those in other scripts. State industries minister Subhash Desai said, “The Maharashtra government has taken a decision that all shops should have name boards in Marathi. This should be in a font that is prominently visible. The decision to have Marathi name boards on shops was taken in 2017. But its implementation was not happening on the ground. Hence, the Cabinet today took the decision to implement it effectively.”
Criticism of the move had come from the commercial quarters while it was alleged that the decision was taken in the run-up to the upcoming Municipal Corporation elections in the state. The move has been a long-standing demand from the Raj Thackeray led Maharashtra Navanirman Sena and has been an underlined issuing in the arena of Marathi Politics in the state.
