The Tamil Nadu government has issued an advisory to senior officials and heads of departments, reiterating existing provisions and orders mandating the use of Tamil as the official language in all government offices.
The letter has gone to Additional Chief Secretaries, Principal Secretaries, Secretaries, departments at the Secretariat, District Collectors, and heads of departments, urging them to follow existing instructions to use Tamil in all official communications and actions.
Tamil is the official language of the Government of Tamil Nadu, according to the Official Languages Act.
An advisory issued by V. Rajaraman, Secretary, Tamil Development and Information Department on April 14, noted previous orders that specified that government orders should only be issued in Tamil, and that circulars should also be in Tamil.
Communications sent by department heads’ offices to government and other offices should be in Tamil. Except for exempted cases, all other letters, communications, and correspondence should also be in Tamil, the advisory stated.
The letters received in Tamil from the public should be replied to in Tamil; the notes about them should also be in Tamil, the advisory pointed out. Government employees should sign only in Tamil in all correspondence, it added.
Additionally, for those correspondence and government orders, for which exemption has been granted for issuing them in English, the departments at the Secretariat should send them to the Translation Division of the Tamil Development and Information Department to translate them into Tamil, the advisory said.
The respective departments, which have translated them to Tamil, should send them to the Translation Division for review as per requirements, it added.
Published – April 16, 2025 02:54 pm IST
