- Is Hindi our National Language? This question has come up for consideration before the Apex Court in an SLP filed by an accused in a narcotics case when his bail application was rejected by the Bombay HC while calling Hindi our national language.
- In November 2021, Justice Nitin Sambre rejected the appellant Gangam Sudhir Kumar’s bail application despite the police’s failure to explain the reasons for his arrest in a language that he understands. This, according to the appellant, was a non-compliance of section 50 of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act.
- The accused was arrested by the Anti-Narcotics Cell of the Mumbai Police in 2019 under section 8(c) read with section 20(c) and 29 of the NDPS Act. Commercial quantity of ganja was found from a vehicle which was in the name of the accused’s wife. He is a resident of Telangana and the drugs were seized in Mumbai.
- While rejecting the bail application the Court observed that the applicant was communicated his statutory rights under section 50 of the Act, in Hindi. But he has later claimed that he does not understand Hindi.
- The Court also observed that he is the owner of a Tours and Travels business and the basic necessity of such a business is the person's ability to communicate with his clients. The Court also said that the applicant was communicated about his rights in Hindi which is a National Language.
- In his SLP, the applicant/accused claimed that under Article 22 of the Constitution, he has to be told of his grounds of arrest which has not happened in the present case as he was told of his rights in Hindi and not in Telugu, a language in which he was fluent in.
- As regards calling Hindi a National Language, the SLP states that this notion is wrong and that the Indian Constitution does not provide for any national language and there are only official languages.
- The keenest controversy in the Constituent Assembly, as per the applicant, was regarding the official language and there was no mention of a national language in the Draft Constitution. The only languages that were mentioned were the official languages of the Union Parliament and the State Legislature and the language used by the SC and the HCs.
- Thus, the SLP seeks a release on bail on the grounds of violation of Section 50 of the NDPS Act
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