The Constitution of India initially permitted the use of English language for all official purposes for a period of -

Question

UnlockIAS · Accepted Answer

Correct — C, 15 years. Article 343(1) makes Hindi in the Devanagari script the official language of the Union, but Article 343(2) provided that English would continue to be used for all official purposes of the Union for which it was being used immediately before the Constitution came into force — for a period of fifteen years from the commencement (26 January 1950), i.e. up to 1965. The Official Languages Act, 1963 later allowed English to continue as an associate official language beyond that period.

Why the other options are wrong — (a) Not the constitutional figure. Five years is the timeline in Article 344 for constituting the first Official Language Commission — not the period for which English was permitted.  (b) Wrong. Ten years relates to the second Official Language Commission under Article 344, not to the English-use period, which was 15 years.  (d) Wrong. The transitional period fixed by Article 343(2) was fifteen years, not twenty.

Concept: The Constitution's language provisions are in Part XVII (Articles 343-351). Article 343 makes Hindi (Devanagari script) the official language of the Union while allowing English to continue for 15 years for all official Union purposes. This was a compromise reached in the Constituent Assembly (the Munshi-Ayyangar formula) to avoid an abrupt switch that non-Hindi regions opposed.

State PCS 2023 Q6 — Polity & Governance PYQ with Answer

State PCS 2023 Q6 — Polity & Governance PYQ with Answer