'Response sought in plea to establish Nat'l Tamil development council'

CHENNAI: The first bench of Madras High Court on Thursday directed the Union Government to file its response within four weeks in a petition filed for a direction to constitute National Tamil Development Council which should be named after the Pandya King Sadayavarman Sundarapandian.

Heading the bench along with Justice D Bharatha Chakravarthy, Acting Chief Justice T Raja passed the direction on hearing a petition filed by advocate B Jagannath of Chennai.

The petitioner submitted demanding a National Council for Tamil Development – preferably in the name of the Legendary Great Hindu Tamil Emperor Jata Varma Sundara Pandiyan – similar to and on the lines of the National Council for the Promotion of Urdu Language with an intention and object to develop, promote and protect one of the oldest divine languages of our Universe – the Classical Divine Tamil Language.

He pointed out that there were also councils for the development of the Hindi, Sanskrit and Sindhi languages that had been set by the union government.

"Apart from the Kasi Tamil Sangamam, no step has been taken for the development of Tamil by the Union Government, " he said in his affidavit, adding that he had sent a representation in November 2022 to the center and the same was not considered.