MADURAI: Is Devanagari, the widely used Hindi script, a language or design? Being hauled before court over the new Rs 2,000 currency notes that ruffled a few feathers in the Hindi-wary Tamil Nadu, the Centre contended that the Devanagiri numeral written the on both sides of the new notes was a design component and not a language.
"As per Reserve Bank of India Act, the RBI's Central Board can recommend designs to be printed on the currency notes. The Devanagari numerical is also a design," argued the Additional Solicitor General (ASG) before the Madurai Bench of Madras High Court on Tuesday, a line that the bench refused to buy.
The numerical conveys the promise made by the RBI governor that the currency note carried a value of Rs 2,000, pointed out a division bench of Justices S Nagamuthu and MV Muralidaran. In doing so, it is communicating, said the bench, adding that the language should be a ‘legal’ one as per the existing acts. The numeral, it stressed, cannot be termed design.
Failing to convince the bench, the ASG sought time, which the court granted. The case will be heard on November 28.
The petitioner 'Agri' K P T Ganesan said the new notes carried the numerals for Rs 2,000 in the international form (English) as well as Devanagari, though there is no provision to use it under the Official Languages Act enacted in 1963. Even before the enactment of the act, the President did not give nod for such utilisation of Devanagari, the petitioner added.
Using Devanagari on the notes without enacting the mandatory legislative measures has rendered the new notes illegal and invalid, he said.
The new currency had given rise to the old debate on languages, one of the key components that shaped the politics of Tamil Nadu. Many here are quick to equate it to the Hindi imposition efforts of the previous decades that catalysed Dravidian politics, to which the use of Devanagari numerals on the new currency (including the Rs 500 notes) has proven a technical weapon against the Centre.