During the Krishna Janmashtami of 2014, the then President Shri Pranab Mukherjee broke protocol to meet Tarun Vijay who was a Rajya Sabha MP at that time, to hear his plea to introduce Tamil in Madras High Court.
The Office of the President is one of the busiest offices especially on festive occasions. Meeting the Head of the State on such days is almost impossible as protocols do not allow for other meetings.
However, the former President broke protocols and met Mr. Tarun Vijay out of his love and respect for both ‘Tamil’ and ‘Tamil Tarun Vijay’ as he is known for his deep passion towards the Thiruvalluvar, Thirukkural and the Tamil language as a whole.
Mr. Pranab Mukherjee had carefully gone through the memorandum of Tarun Vijay to introduce Tamil in Madras High Court.
He had appreciated Mr. Tarun Vijay’s efforts of national integration and assured of early on the matter.
Tamil Nadu has been making requests consistently to introduce Tamil as one of the court languages at the Madras High Court. The Tamil Nadu Assembly had passed a resolution in 2006 urging the Centre to get the President’s assent in using Tamil language for court proceedings. However, this proposal made which was referred to the Chief Justice of India for advice was rejected in 2012 after deliberations with the Supreme Court.
The proposal to make Tamil the official language was rejected earlier by the Supreme Court in 1997 and 1999.