NEW DELHI — The Supreme Court of India on Tuesday upheld the use of Urdu on the signboard of a municipal council in Maharashtra, affirming that the language, though often politically and communally contested, is inherently Indian and not tied to any religion, Bar and Bench reported.
A bench of Justices Sudhanshu Dhulia and K. Vinod Chandran dismissed a petition filed by Varshatai Sanjay Bagade, a former councillor of Patur town, challenging the inclusion of Urdu on the nameboard of the Patur Municipal Council. The Court held that both Urdu and Marathi share equal constitutional status and emphasized that there is no legal prohibition on using Urdu alongside Marathi under the Maharashtra Local Authorities (Official Languages) Act, 2022.
“The prejudice against Urdu stems from the misconception that Urdu is alien to India,” the bench noted. “This opinion, we are afraid, is incorrect.”
The Court underlined that Urdu, like Hindi and Marathi, is an Indo-Aryan language developed in India to facilitate communication among people from diverse cultural backgrounds. It described Urdu as an integral part of India’s linguistic and cultural heritage.
“This is not an occasion to have an elaborate discussion on the rise and fall of Urdu,” the bench observed, “but this much can be stated that this fusion of the two languages, Hindi and Urdu, met a roadblock in the form of the puritans on both sides… A schism exploited by the colonial powers in dividing the two languages on religion.”
The petitioner’s argument that the 2022 Act limited the use of official language to Marathi was rejected. The Court found no statutory basis for such a restriction and further noted that the Municipal Council had been using Urdu on signage since 1956. It also pointed out that the legal authority to raise such an objection lies with the Chief Officer of the Council, not with an individual councillor.
“Language is not religion,” the Court said. “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.”
In its judgment, the Court also acknowledged Urdu’s deep imprint on India’s legal lexicon, citing common legal terms such as adalat, halafnama, and peshi as examples of Urdu’s integration into court language.
The bench stressed that the presence of Urdu on a municipal signboard is a matter of accessibility and public communication rather than political or religious symbolism. “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,” the Court said.
The Supreme Court ruling reiterates the constitutional principle of linguistic plurality, urging citizens to move beyond prejudices. “Let us make friends with Urdu and every language,” the Court concluded.
Bagade was represented by advocates Kunal Cheema, Satyajeetsingh Raghuwanshi, and Raghav Deshpande. The respondents were represented by Preet S. Phanse, Siddharth Dharmadhikari, and Aaditya Aniruddha Pande.
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