ALIMCO: Kanpur office notified under Official Language Rules

The Central Government has notified the Artificial Limbs Manufacturing Corporation of India (ALIMCO), Kanpur, under the Official Language Rules after more than 80 per cent of its staff acquired working knowledge of Hindi, according to a Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment notification. The notification, S.O. 6030(E), is dated 3 November 2026 and was published in the Gazette of India on 5 November 2026.

Issued by the ministry’s Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities (Divyangjan), the notification invokes Rule 10(4) of the Official Language (Use for Official Purposes of the Union) Rules, 1976. It identifies the corporation as an enterprise under the department’s administrative control and is signed by Statistical Adviser Richa Shankar.

The measure gives the Kanpur establishment the status of a “notified office” under the rules. That status matters for translation requirements in communications between Central Government offices and for the government’s power to specify certain Hindi-only internal work. The notification itself does not direct every employee to conduct all work exclusively in Hindi.

Its wording also makes an important distinction: the staff threshold concerns “working knowledge of Hindi”, not the separately defined standard of “proficiency in Hindi”.

What the staff threshold establishes

Under the Central Government’s Rule 10, the staff of an office are ordinarily deemed to have acquired working knowledge of Hindi when 80 per cent of those working there have that knowledge. The ALIMCO notification records a share above that threshold, but does not give the exact percentage, total staff strength or number of employees counted.

Rule 10 provides several ways for an individual employee to meet the working-knowledge standard. These include passing matriculation, or an equivalent or higher examination, with Hindi as a subject; passing the Pragya examination under the Central Government’s Hindi Teaching Scheme; or passing another examination specified by the government.

For particular categories of posts, the government may specify a lower examination under the teaching scheme. An employee may also declare working knowledge in the form annexed to the rules. The ALIMCO notification does not identify which of these routes its employees used.

Proficiency is a different category under Rule 9. It covers employees who passed matriculation or an equivalent or higher examination with Hindi as the medium of examination, took Hindi as an elective subject in a degree-level or equivalent or higher examination, or declared proficiency in the prescribed form.

The distinction is relevant because the rules attach different provisions to these categories. ALIMCO’s notification establishes the office-level working-knowledge threshold; it does not establish that the same proportion of employees meets the proficiency definition.

Rule 2 brings offices of corporations or companies owned or controlled by the Central Government within the definition of a Central Government office. Rule 10 then provides for the government, or an officer it specifies, to determine whether an office’s staff have acquired working knowledge and for qualifying offices to be named in the Official Gazette.

What notified status means for office work

The Central Government’s Rule 4 regulates communications between its offices. Its translation provisions conclude with an exception: a translation into the other language is not required under those provisions when a communication is addressed to a notified office. ALIMCO’s notification therefore has a practical connection to how incoming inter-office correspondence is handled.

A separate provision in Rule 8 allows the government to issue an order specifying notified offices where employees proficient in Hindi must use Hindi alone for noting, drafting and other official purposes identified in that order. Noting means recording comments or decisions on an office file; drafting means preparing official text.

The ministry’s notification names ALIMCO under Rule 10(4). It does not itself specify Hindi-only tasks under Rule 8. Notification of an office and an order prescribing particular internal uses of Hindi are distinct steps in the rules.

Rule 8 also generally permits an employee to record a file note in Hindi or English without personally supplying a translation. An employee with working knowledge of Hindi may not request an English translation of a Hindi document except where the document is legal or technical. The head of the department or office decides disputes about whether a document falls into those categories.

Bilingual requirements and employee choices remain relevant

Notified status operates within a framework that also requires the use of both languages. Under Rule 6, documents covered by Section 3(3) of the Official Languages Act, 1963 must be issued in Hindi and English. Responsibility rests with the person signing them.

Rule 11 requires manuals, codes and other procedural literature to be published in bilingual form. It also requires Hindi and English on forms, register headings, nameplates, signboards, letterheads and specified stationery, subject to government exemptions. The ALIMCO notification contains no exemption from these provisions.

For employees, Rule 7 permits applications, appeals and representations in either Hindi or English. Those made or signed in Hindi must receive a Hindi reply. An employee who requests a service-related order or notice, including one concerning disciplinary proceedings, in either language must receive it in that language without undue delay.

The Central Government’s Rule 12 places responsibility for compliance with the Act, rules and directions on each office’s administrative head, who must establish suitable checks.

Notified status can also be withdrawn. Rule 10 allows the Central Government, if it considers that the proportion of staff with working knowledge has fallen below the prescribed threshold, to issue a further Gazette notification declaring that the office ceases to be notified from a specified date.