Lawfully yours: By Retd Justice K Chandru

Is it necessary that a state should have a language policy that denies its citizens the option of learning the language/s of his/her choice? I’m from Rajasthan, but born and brought up in Chennai. Though we and our textile business have always felt the warmth of Chennai’s sociability, our kids at school always get the jitters once the language debate gathers steam. While there’s nothing wrong in promoting one’s mother tongue, can hating another language and creating unrest over it be acceptable in this age of technology? — Aarya, Vepery

Every state is entitled to have its own official language policy. India’s states and their boundaries were organised on a linguistic basis under the States Reorganisation Act of 1956. A Rajasthani lawyer M Ranka filed a case challenging this policy. It was rejected by a full bench of the Madras High Court. It is said that there is no right to avoid a state’s official language.

While one can’t fault the government for demanding personal data for delivering subsidies, isn’t it essential that the government roll out a data protection law as well? While the state government is making Aadhaar linking mandatory for power consumers, the Centre wants Aadhaar linked with voter ID. Only recently I received a ‘project cheetah’ promo on the COVID helpline WhatsApp number of the Union government. What is the guarantee that our data will not be misused for political, or commercial gains? How can an ordinary man fight this?

— Mughilavan, Kancheepuram

The Supreme Court has already rejected all your arguments on this in the case of Puttaswami vs Union of India. While the judgment recognised the right to privacy, it exempted such a right to those availing government subsidies. There is no compulsion to link it with the voter ID. The court also directed that the Aadhaar details cannot be shared with anyone.