Supreme Court junks plea against Telangana rule mandating proficiency in Telugu for civil judge post

Supreme Court dismisses plea challenging Telugu language proficiency rule for Telangana civil judge post.

The Supreme Court on Monday (April 28, 2025) dismissed a plea challenging an order upholding a 2023 rule mandating proficiency in the Telugu language to qualify for the civil judge’s post in Telangana.

A bench of Justices B.R. Gavai and Augustine George Masih told the petitioner’s counsel, “It (rule) only says you need to know Telugu.”

The petitioner, a practising advocate, applied for the post of civil judge pursuant to an April 2024 notification.

Before the Telangana High Court, he challenged the constitutionality of Rules 5.3 and 7(i) of the Telangana State Judicial (Service and Cadre) Rules, 2023 over the requirement of the language.

The petitioner also sought a direction to provide the option of being proficient either in Telugu or Urdu as a qualification for being a civil judge aside from providing the option of translating from English to Telugu or Urdu and vice versa in written examination conducted under the 2023 Rules.

Before the top court bench, the petitioner’s counsel said 15% population in Telangana was Urdu speaking.

The counsel said his client cleared the qualifying examination.