Commission and Committee of Parliament on official language.

Article 344, Constitution of India 1950

(1) The President shall, at the expiration of five years from the commencement of this Constitution and thereafter at the expiration of ten years from such commencement, by order constitute a Commission which shall consist of a Chairman and such other members representing the different languages specified in the Eighth Schedule as the President may appoint, and the order shall define the procedure to be followed by the Commission.

(2) It shall be the duty of the Commission to make recommendations to the President as to—

(a) the progressive use of the Hindi language for the official purposes of the Union;

(b) restrictions on the use of the English language for all or any of the official purposes of the Union;

(c) the language to be used for all or any of the purposes mentioned in article 348;

(d) the form of numerals to be used for any one or more specified purposes of the Union;

(e) any other matter referred to the Commission by the President as regards the official language of the Union and the language for communication between the Union and a State or between one State and another and their use.

⁠(3) In making their recommendations under clause (2), the Commission shall have due regard to the industrial, cultural and scientific advancement of India, and the just claims and the interests of persons belonging to the non-Hindi speaking areas in regard to the public services.

⁠(4) There shall be constituted a Committee consisting of thirty members, of whom twenty shall be members of the House of the People and ten shall be members of the Council of States to be elected respectively by the members of the House of the People and the members of the Council of States in accordance with the system of proportional representation by means of the single transferable vote.

⁠(5) It shall be the duty of the Committee to examine the recommendations of the Commission constituted under clause (1) and to report to the President their opinion thereon.

⁠(6) Notwithstanding anything in article 343, the President may, after consideration of the report referred to in clause (5), issue directions in accordance with the whole or any part of that report.

Draft Article 301B was absent in the Draft Constitution 1948. A Drafting Committee Member introduced this provision on 12 September 1949. The Draft Article set up a mechanism to evaluate the use of the official language of India. The President would appoint a commission periodically with members representing various languages to evaluate the use of Hindi and English as the official language of the Union. This Commission would then make recommendations to a committee comprising members of Parliament who would in turn examine the recommendations and file a report with the President. The President is empowered to issue directions based on the report. This provision was discussed on 12, 13 and 14 September 1949.

A Member proposed that the Commission should be appointed by the President before 5 years from the commencement from the Constitution. This was to ensure that the Commissions could make its recommendations prior to the expiry of the 5-year period. Further, he also suggested that the Committee with legislators should be empowered to add their own recommendations to the report submitted to the President.

Another Member proposed an alternative mechanism with just one committee comprising of members of Parliament who would make recommendations to the President. This committee would be constituted within 3 months of the commencement of the Constitution. The President would present the recommendations with an explanation of the action to be taken before Parliament.

The Assembly rejected these amendments without substantial debate.

Draft Article 301B was adopted on 14 September 1949.