12 The Constitution of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka (4) A Provincial Council or a Local Authority which conducts its business in Sinhala shall be entitled to receive communications from and to communicate and transact business with, any official in his official in and a Provincial Council or a Local Authority which conducts its business in Tamil shall be entitled to receive communications from and to communicate and transact business with, any official in his official capacity, in Tamil: Provided, however, that a Provincial Council, Local Authority, Public Institution or any official receiving from transacting business with any other or Provincial Council, Local Authority, Public Institution or an official functioning in an area in which a different language is used as the Language of administration shall be entitled to receive communications from and to communicate and transact business in English. (5) A person shall be entitled to be examined through the medium of either Sinhala or Tamil or a language of his choice at any examination for the admission of persons to the Public Service, Judicial Service, Provincial Public Service, Local Government Service or any public institution, subject to the condition that he may be required to acquire a sufficient knowledge of Tamil or Sinhala, as the case may be, within a reasonable time after admission to such service or public institution where such knowledge is reasonably necessary for the discharge of his duties: Provided that a person may be required to have a sufficient knowledge of Sinhala or Tamil, as a condition for admission to any such service or public institution where no function of the office or employment for which he is recruited can be discharged otherwise than with a sufficient knowledge of such language. (6) In this Article – “official” means the President, any Minister, Deputy Minister, Governor, Chief Minister or Minister of the Board of Ministers of a Province, or any officer of a public institution; local authority or Provincial Council; and “public institution” means a department or institution of the Government, a public corporation or statutory institution.]