Bangla for all boards

A High Court order has been issued, asking all sign boards, nameplates and number plates of vehicles to be written in Bengali language, except for foreign embassies and entities, in Bangladesh.

The bench of Justices Quazi Reza-Ul Hoque and ABM Altaf Hossain gave the order after initial hearing of a writ petition on Monday.

Writ petitioner Yunus Ali Akhand, who joined the hearing, says this order has to be implemented within a month.

The court has issued a rule asking why a directive should not be issued asking to use Bengali language in all spheres, including mass media, he said.

The Cabinet, the Law Secretary, the Home Secretary and Cultural Secretary will have to respond to the rule within two weeks.

The Bangla Language Introduction Act was introduced in March, 1987.

But the non-implementation of the act has prompted Yunus to file the petition now.

The act provides for using Bangla in all spheres, including government, semi-government offices, autonomous institutions and courts except when it comes to dealing with foreign countries, Yunus said.

According to the law, the court must write everything in Bangla.

If anybody files a petition which is not in Bangla, it will be rendered null and void unless rendered in Bangla, he said.

Any violation would be a breach of law, he said.

According to the petition, government officials and employees have been violating the law for so long but no action was taken against them.

Yunus says his petition was to ensure implementation of the law with an order from the court.

Deputy Attorney General Biswajit Roy represented the state.