NEWS HIGHLIGHT
Theme : Polity
Paper:GS-2
The judgments delivered by the Supreme Court will now be translated into four languages —Hindi, Tamil, Gujarati and Odia — Chief Justice of India (CJI) Dhananjaya Y Chandrachud informed.
TABLE OF CONTENT
- Context
- CJI Pitches for Judgment in Regional Languages
- Reason for the Move
- Why is English a Legal Prominent Language in India?
- Constitutional and Legal Provisions for Regional Languages
- Road Ahead
Context : The judgments delivered by the Supreme Court will now be translated into four languages —Hindi, Tamil, Gujarati and Odia — Chief Justice of India (CJI) Dhananjaya Y Chandrachud informed.
CJI Pitches for Judgment in Regional Languages :
- Expert committee under Justice Abhay Oka: A committee has been formed, headed by SC Judge Abhay Oka, to translate the judgments into four languages. CJI also intends to appoint retired judicial officers, apart from translators, for verifying machine translation of the Supreme Court judgments.
- State-wide translations: It has a mission that every high court across the country should have a committee of two judges, one of whom should be a judge who is drawn from the district judiciary “because of their sheer width of experience”.
- AI-based translation: CJI further said that they are also developing a software and setting up a team where machine learning for translation of the SC judgments will be used.
Reason for the Move :
- English barrier: The use of obsolete, archaic or old English words which have passed from the English language but have been kept alive by their frequent use in the Legal profession.
- Excessive use of jargons: The use of Latin, and sometimes French, words, and phrases to express a rule, principle, doctrine, maximum, etc. which can be easily phrased in English
- Legal language complexities: The practice of assigning common English words a new, different, unusual and purely legal meaning or assigning these words some exclusive legal definitions.
- Attitude of legal professionals: The ridiculed tendency of legal professionals both lawyers and judges to write often long and complex sentences without any punctuation.
Why is English a Legal Prominent Language in India?
- Better than legacy language: The language used in Courts in India has seen a transition over centuries with the shift from Urdu to Persian and Farsi scripts during the Mughal period which continued in subordinate courts even during the British Rule.
- Codified laws and legal system: The British introduced a codified system of law in India with English as the official language.
- Creating cohesiveness: Just like cases from all over the country come to the Supreme Court, judges and lawyers of the Supreme Court also come from all parts of India.
- Ease of legal education: Without the use of English, it would be impossible to discharge their duty. All judgments of the Supreme Court are also delivered in English.
Constitutional and Legal Provisions for Regional Languages :
- India Constitution: Article 348(1) provides that all proceedings in the Supreme Court and in every High Court shall be in English language until Parliament by law otherwise provides. Article 348 (2) provides that the Governor of the State may, with the previous consent of the President, authorize the use of the Hindi language or any other language used for any official purpose of the State.
- Official Language Act, 1963: The Act reiterates this and provides under Section 7 that the use of Hindi or official language of a State in addition to the English language may be authorized, with the consent of the President of India, by the Governor of the State for the purpose of judgments, decrees etc. made by the High Court for that State. No law has been made in this regard by the Parliament so far.
- Law Commission of India: The 18th Law Commission Report on “Non-Feasibility of Introduction of Hindi as Compulsory Language in the Supreme Court of India” (2008) has recommended that the higher judiciary should not be subjected to any kind of even persuasive change in the present societal context. The Government has accepted the stand of the Commission.
- Demand from various States: The center has received proposals from the Government of Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Chhattisgarh, West Bengal and Karnataka to permit use of Tamil, Gujarati, Hindi, Bengali and Kannada in the proceedings of their respective High Courts. The use of Hindi has been authorized long back in the proceedings as well in the judgments, decrees or orders in the High Courts of the States of Rajasthan, MP, UP and Bihar.
Road Ahead :
- The legal language can be simplified by using the following steps.
- It should be insisted that the laws written by the legislatures can be made understandable to average laymen as well as to the legal professional
- These laws must be written in non-technical terms
- Legislatures should use short sentences with adequate punctuation
- Use of Latin and French phrases should be abandoned
- Use of obsolete archaic English words should be abandoned and at last, the same meaning of words should be applied to those legal terms as the same meaning in common usage
FAQs :
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What is the Official Language Act 1963?
ANS. The Act reiterates this and provides under Section 7 that the use of Hindi or official language of a State in addition to the English language may be authorized, with the consent of the President of India, by the Governor of the State for the purpose of judgments, decrees etc. made by the High Court for that State. No law has been made in this regard by the Parliament so far.
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What does the Law Commission say on it?
ANS. The 18th Law Commission Report on “Non-Feasibility of Introduction of Hindi as Compulsory Language in the Supreme Court of India” (2008) has recommended that the higher judiciary should not be subjected to any kind of even persuasive change in the present societal context. The Government has accepted the stand of the Commission.