Daijiworld Media Network - Chennai (SP)

New Delhi, Aug 8: Kannadigas' Campaign for Classical Tag to Kannada suffered a major jolt after a Chennai resident filed public interest litigation in the Madras High Court seeking reconstitution of the expert committee formed for examining the demand for conferring classical status to Kannada.

The petitioner has questioned the standing and expertise of the members of this seven-member committee, formed to scrutinize the demand being made for classical status for Telugu and Kannada languages, by Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka states respectively. He has demanded for the disbanding of the present committee and the formation of a new committee under a retired Judge of either the High Court or the Supreme Court.

The High Court, after admitting the petition, has ordered for serving of notices to the union ministry of culture, seeking its reply within three weeks. The committee, which is headed by Kendriya Sahitya Akademi chairman Sunil Gangopadhyaya, was to hold possibly its last meeting on Friday August 8.

The petition has been filed at a crucial juncture, coming at a time when the committee seemed to be in favour of granting classical status to both the languages. Even if the committee gives its opinion in favour of the demand made by the two languages now, a final decision can be possibly made only after the legal process initiated with the filing of the said petition, comes to an end.

It may be noted that Tamil is the only language to have been conferred with the classical status so far. The union ministry of culture is learnt to have sought legal opinion on the ramifications arising out of the High Court order.