The Bombay High Court on Wednesday said the Maharashtra government’s rule mandating shops and establishments display their names in Marathi (in the Devanagari script) was reasonable and refused to quash it. Viren Shah, the president of Federation of Retail Traders Welfare Association (FRTWA), said they will appeal the same in the Supreme Court. The court dismissed the petition filed by FRTWA and imposed cost of Rs 25,000 on it.

Shah said, “This order is against the Constitution. We are allowed to express in whichever language we want. We respect the order but as per our right to appeal against the Bombay High Court order, we will seek appropriate legal advice and go to the Supreme Court. The debate has always been about the font size of shops’ names. FRTWA has always respected the fact that displaying Marathi font is mandatory, and living in this state and in Mumbai, we abide by it. The objection is only against the size of the font used.”