Don’t seal premises over 60% Kannada signage rule: Karnataka HC
A single judge bench of the High Court observed that the rule prescribing the shut down of an enterprise for not having 60 per cent of its signage in Kannada “is prima facie untenable”, and said that the matter would require consideration after calling for objections from the state.
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In February this year, the Karnataka legislature passed the Kannada Language Comprehensive Development (Amendment) Act, 2024 to ensure that all signages in the state have a 60 per cent Kannada component.IN an interim order while admitting a writ petition filed by the Retailers Association of India, the Karnataka HC asked the state government not to take “precipitative action” like shutting down business establishments for failure to implement a 60 per cent Kannada signage rule prescribed under a newly passed law in the state.
A single judge bench of the High Court observed that the rule prescribing the shut down of an enterprise for not having 60 per cent of its signage in Kannada “is prima facie untenable”, and said that the matter would require consideration after calling for objections from the state.
“Learned Advocate General would also submit that the intention of the state is not to seal down any business undertakings and to enforce 60 per cent of the boards to be in Kannada. The matter would require consideration and for the purpose of consideration would require the statement of objections by the State, as the Act is called in question. Therefore, the state shall not insist on the contents of the circular dated 28.02.2024 only in regard to sealing down of the premises,” Justice M Nagaprasanna observed.
In February this year, the Karnataka legislature passed the Kannada Language Comprehensive Development (Amendment) Act, 2024 to ensure that all signages in the state have a 60 per cent Kannada component. The move followed protests by pro-Kannada organisations in Bengaluru against the use of 100 per cent English signages by commercial establishments.
A circular was subsequently issued on February 28, 2024 by the state in furtherance of the new law with an indication that “if 60 per cent of the boards are not in Kannada, those business establishments or undertakings would be sealed down”.
“This, prima facie, is untenable,” the Karnataka HC said in preliminary observations on Monday after the Retailers Association of India and seven retail firms — Titan, PVR Inox, Arvind Lifestyles, Infinite Retail, Aditya Birla, H&M and Hardcastle Restaurants — approached the HC over the circular.
The Retailers Association has argued that prior to the amendment of the Kannada Language Comprehensive Amendment Act the law only stated that signboards must have Kannada letters and did not specify 60 per cent condition.
The HC observed that the “unamended provision mandated 50 per cent of the boards in all commercial establishments and business undertakings to be in Kannada language, which was increased to 60 per cent by the amendment, the tenability or otherwise of the legislation required to be considered”.
With the retailers expressing difficulty in the implementation of the Kannada signage rule in the time prescribed by the state, Advocate General Shashi Kiran Shetty assured the court that the new law was yet to come into force through a notification.
“Till the clarification is issued, no precipitative action shall be taken against the petitioners, only if the Act has not come into force,” the HC said while emphasising that if the law has come into force, then the state must not insist on closing premises for non-compliance.
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