Chapter III USE OF OFFICIAL LANGUAGE

Legislative Sector.

1. (1) Subject to the Official Languages Act, 1963 (Central Act 19 of 1963), in relation to the law making in the State,—
   • (i) in Bills to be introduced in, and in Acts passed by, the Kerala Legislative Assembly;
   • (ii) in all Ordinances promulgated by the Governor of Kerala under Article 213 of the Constitution of India;
   • (iii) in all orders, rules, regulations or bye-laws issued by the Government under the Constitution of India, or under any law made by the Parliament or the Kerala Legislative Assembly the language to be used shall be Malayalam and when Malayalam language is so used, a translation thereof in English shall also be published.
2. (2) Important Central Acts and State Acts published in English shall be translated into Malayalam, incorporating amendments made therein, within such period, as may be prescribed.
3. (3) The rules made under enactments and published in English shall also be published in Malayalam within such period as may be prescribed.

Official Language Sector.

1. (1) Subject to Articles 346 and 347 of the Constitution of India, the language to be used for all official purposes in the State of Kerala shall be Malayalam.
2. (2) Sub-section
3. (1) shall be applicable to all existing Departments and all Departments to be newly constituted under the State Government and Local Self Government Institutions and Quasi-Governmental Institutions, Autonomous, Co-operative, Public sector Undertakings under the Government: Provided that English may be used for correspondence with the Government of India, Institutions under the Government of India, foreign countries, other States, High Court, Supreme Court etc., and in any other circumstances where English has to be used as provided by law and with people speaking languages other than Tamil and Kannada, the minority languages in the State.

Education and Research Sector.

1. (1) Malayalam shall be the compulsory first language in all Government and aided schools in Kerala up to the Xth Standard.
2. (2) Steps shall be taken to promote dissemination of Malayalam language in all schools in the State.
3. (3) Students whose mother tongue is any language other than Malayalam, opportunity shall be given to study Malayalam language in addition to their mother tongue.

Special provisions regarding other State-Linguistic Minorities.—Notwithstanding anything contained in Section 5 or Section 6,—

1. (1) The Tamil and Kannada linguistic minorities in the State may use their languages for their correspondence with the State Government Secretariat, Heads of Department and all local offices of the State Government situated in those areas declared by the Government to be linguistic minority areas for the purpose and replies send in such case shall be in their respective minority languages.
2. (2) Students, whose mother tongue is any language other than Malayalam may choose languages of their choice and are available in the schools of the State in accordance with the National Education Curriculum.
3. (3) With respect to students who come from other States and foreign countries to Kerala for studying, it is not compulsory to write the Malayalam examination in IXth Standard, Xth Standard and Higher Secondary Level.

Unified Script Layout.—A unified script layout shall be implemented in the manner as may be prescribed in accordance with the development of Science and Technology.