Bengal law minister Moloy Ghatak on Tuesday wrote a letter to the Chief Justice of Calcutta High Court following an allegation of restriction of Nepali language at the Mungpo court by a judicial magistrate.

The allegation has sparked outrage at a time when the Darjeeling hills are preparing for an 11-day celebration of the Language Day from August 20.

Nepali was included in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution on August 20, 1992.

Ghatak said in his letter that the Darjeeling Bar Association had received a representation from the Mungpoo Bar Association on August 18.

“…wherein it has been alleged that Smt Alokananda Sarkar, judicial magistrate 1st Class in Mungpoo Court has stated in open Court that She would not allow the use Nepali Language in the Court as well as in the normal communication between the employees of the Court and the legal fraternity as Nepali is a language of Nepal and not of India,” read the letter.

The minister has added that the Nepali language has been included in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution and “is the official language of the three Hill Sub-divisions of Darjeeling”.

The letter comes after Anit Thapa, the chief executive of the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA), met Ghatak in Calcutta on Tuesday and submitted a memorandum to the minister.

Lawyers from across the Darjeeling hills are protesting the incident. The Darjeeling Bar Association observed a cease-work on Tuesday, while the Mungpo Bar Association started boycotting the court from Monday.

“Considering the gravity of the situation, you are requested to kindly intervene into the matter so that the stalemate may be resolved at the earliest,” Ghatak wrote to the chief justice.

Language is a sensitive issue in the Darjeeling hills. The region went up in flames for 104 days in 2017 when an agitation was sparked by a language controversy.

Apart from Thapa, leaders of other political parties also condemned the alleged remark by the judge.