Special Provisions
(1) The President constitutes an Official Language Commission (Chairman + members representing Eighth Schedule languages) 5 years after the Constitution's commencement, and again at 10 years. (2) It recommends on: progressive Hindi use for Union purposes; restricting English use; language for Article 348 purposes (courts/legislation); numeral forms; and other President-referred language matters. (3) It must have due regard to India's industrial/cultural/scientific advancement and non-Hindi-speaking areas' legitimate interests in public services. (4)-(6) A 30-member Parliamentary Committee (20 Lok Sabha + 10 Rajya Sabha members, elected proportionally) examines the Commission's recommendations and reports its own opinion to the President, who may then issue binding directions based on that report.
This creates a periodic review mechanism specifically for language policy - an expert Commission representing India's various languages makes recommendations, which a cross-party Parliamentary Committee then reviews, with the President able to issue binding directions based on that process. The explicit requirement to protect non-Hindi-speaking areas' interests in public services reflects the sensitivity of language policy in India's linguistically diverse federal structure.
This structured, deliberative process for language policy - rather than the government simply deciding unilaterally - reflects how sensitive and politically significant language questions have historically been in India, particularly for non-Hindi-speaking states.