What is the 60% Kannada signage rule? Here's all to know about the law

After the Karnataka HC asked the State to avoid any coercive action against shops failing to comply with the Kannada on signboards rule, here's a look at the history of the Kannada preference struggle

The Karnataka High Court on Wednesday passed an interim order asking the state government to avoid taking 'precipitative action' like shutting down businesses and shops over failure to implement the newly passed 60 percent Kannada signboards rule. 

The Karnataka legislature passed a law in February mandating that all the name boards of commercial establishments have a 60 per cent Kannada language component.

Terming it 'prima facie untenable', a single judge Bench of the High Court said that the matter requires consideration as the Act has been called into question by people of the State. "The matter would require consideration and for the purpose of consideration would require the statement of objections by the State, as the Act is called in question. Therefore, the State shall not insist on the contents of the circular dated 28.02.2024 only in regard to sealing down of the premises," Justice M Nagaprasanna said in his observation.

What is the 60 per cent Kannada rule?

Around Christmas last year (2023), the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) issued a directive mandating that all commercial establishments under its jurisdiction have name boards in 60 per cent Kannada language from February 28.

Soon after, members of a Kannada outfit, Karnataka Rakshana Vedike (KRV), took to the streets to "enforce" this rule from December 27 itself. The protests spread across the city, and the situation grew tense as reports of vandalism, especially against English signboards, started to pour in.

The long road to passing of the law

On January 5 this year, the Karnataka Cabinet approved an ordinance to amend the Kannada Language Comprehensive Development (Amendment) Act, 2024, which mandates 60 per cent use of the state's language in signage. Against the backdrop of violent protests across the city, the government took the ordinance route to speed up the process. 

However, the Karnataka Governor Thaawarchand Gehlot sent back the ordinance.

The state government then passed the Act in its legislature and issued a gazette notification on February 26, making the Kannada signage mandatory.

History of Kannada preference

Bengaluru, the IT hub of India, has been an important centre for people from diverse backgrounds and regions. Due to the city's varied linguistic situation, Bengaluru has also often struggled with the issue of language preference, sometimes resulting in tensions. 

The demand for Kannada signboards in the capital city came up in the early 2000s when the city was emerging as Bengaluru was slowly emerging as the back-end office of the developed countries. In 2002, S M Krishna, the then Chief Minister of Karnataka, issued a circular appealing to the municipal corporations to rename the signboards and streets in Kannada. However, the circular failed the legal test.

The attempt to revive the Kannada preference reemerged in 2008 when CM and BJP leader B S Yediyurappa added Rule 24 in the Karnataka Shops and Commercial Establishments (Amendment) Act, 1961. The rule mandated that the top half of a signboard had to be in Kannada, and the bottom half could be in any other language. 

However, telecom service provider Vodafone Essar South challenged the rule in the Karnataka High Court, saying it would have huge financial implications for the crores of rupees it had already spent on nameboards across the city. The High Court agreed with the company and stayed the rule in 2009, striking it down completely in 2014.

The BBMP again issued an order in 2018 requiring 60 per cent of the signboards to be in Kannada, but the shopkeepers' union Retailers Association of India challenged it in the High Court and got a stay order in 2019.

Resurgence of Kannada preference

After multiple failures over the decades in implementing the Kannada signboard law, the Kannada Development Authority, in 2022, drafted the Kannada Language Comprehensive Development Act, which was passed by the State legislature in the same year. Eventually, in December last year, the state government took the ordinance route to have its way and set February 28 as the deadline to comply with the law.