Banks instructed to print trilingual forms, RBI tells HC

Banks instructed to print trilingual forms, RBI tells HC

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has told the Madras High Court Bench here that it had issued a circular way back in December 2005 itself instructing the banks in the country to use English, Hindi as well as the regional language in all printed materials, including account opening forms, pay-in slips, passbooks and so on used by the customers.

Filing a counter affidavit in reply to a public interest litigation petition, RBI General Manager Nisha Nambiar said that two more similar circulars were also issued to the banks in 2014 and 2015 and that RBI officials were also conducting periodical surprise inspections in bank branches to make sure the availability of trilingual forms.

D. Raju, an activist from Ramanathapuram district, had filed the PIL petition stating that a Tamil daily had recently carried a news report about the problems faced by a majority of bank customers in the State in filling up challans, forms and applications since they were printed either in English or Hindi or both and never in Tamil.

Pointing out that many foreign countries, including Sri Lanka, Singapore, Malaysia and Canada, were giving high importance to development of Tamil and the use of the language in day-to-day life, the petitioner lamented that Tamil could not find place even in bank challans in a country where it had been declared a Classical language. The petitioner, represented by his counsel S. Malaikani, had contended that it was essential to print bank applications in Tamil also, especially when the Centre was very particular in curbing black money and encouraging financial transactions through banks. “As long as the forms are in English and Hindi, people in Tamil Nadu would have to face hindrances,” he had said.

Source:The Hindu