The courts now need to voluntarily break free from the enslavement of this linguistic apartheid. If the apex court takes this initiative, then Indian languages will soon become a powerful medium for administrative activities. With this initiative, understanding and communication will increase in the justice-process of the common man, but the governance and administration will also move towards becoming a vehicle for the welfare of humanity.
In the conference of Chief Ministers and Chief Justices of High Courts held in Delhi, the Prime Minister said that, ‘Suraaj is the basis of justice in any country’. Therefore justice should be linked to the language of the people. As long as the common man does not understand the basis of justice, for him there is no difference between justice and state order. A large population finds it difficult to understand the judicial process to the decisions, as they are in English.
If justice is provided in local languages, the trust of the citizen in the justice system will increase. For this, there is a need to simplify the legal language and deliver decisions in the local language. Chief Justice NV Raman also called for Indianisation of the judicial system and proceedings in local languages in the High Courts. This is perhaps the first time that the judiciary has agreed with the legislature on the use of local languages in courts.
Mahatma Gandhi had also objected to the use of English in the courts, saying that it would be better to use Hindi as a colloquial and official language of the country than English, but it should also be used in the courts. If this is not the case then people will not fully understand the judicial process. Therefore, it is necessary to use the national and regional languages in the courts.
He said that till we do not give the status of national language to Hindi and give their due importance to other local languages, then all talk of Swaraj will be meaningless. Gandhiji had said this advocacy of regional languages in the courts during the Hindi Sahitya Sammelan held in Indore in 1918. The Prime Minister has emphasized on the same point.
In fact, it is futile to expect a law whose language is not understood by the illiterate common man. That is why at the time of making the law itself, the Prime Minister has said to add its explanation in simple language along with the original law. If this experiment is implemented, then the law will move out of the purview of the comprehension of judges and advocates and will also start coming into the understanding of the common citizen.
There will be no inconvenience for the courts to function in the local language, because even today all the district and tehsil level courts in the country work almost entirely in the local languages. Only medical and judicial tests are conducted in English. Their findings can also be given in regional languages.
However, even now the High Court and the Supreme Court operate only in English. Their reasoning behind this is that the judges of the High Courts have to be transferred to any state of the country. These also include those states whose language is different from the language of the judge. But this argument is not valid.
Because after passing the examination of the Union Public Service Commission, those who go across the country to become District Magistrates and District Magistrates, they not only process the applications given in the local language, but also do the work of Revenue Courts. The documents relating to revenue are in local languages and advocates represent in those languages. Ultimately, the decisions of the revenue courts are also given by the IAS in the local language itself. There is also no linguistic discrepancy due to the decisions coming in the local language.
It is a good thing that now the judiciary and the legislature are agreeing to do the work of courts in local languages. This will encourage and flourish the talents that have withered before they bloom because of the supposedly made imperative of English. Students from disadvantaged communities, who are getting admission by taking advantage of reservation in education, are being forced to take suicidal steps due to the English environment.
Clearly, this dominance is widely creating a sense of fatal inferiority amongst the youth who come to study through Hindi and linguistic mediums. So now is the time to look at the English vs Hindi debate as a disdain for Indian languages? If this happens, then it will be possible to find a logical and practical solution to the linguistic problem by seriously considering its judicial, social, cultural, economic and educational aspects.
There is no doubt that English has its own importance on the current globalized liberal and modern technology based global scene. But this does not make it necessary that the day-to-day work of justice, governance and business should be done in a language which eighty-eight percent of the country’s population does not know. The debate and decision which the plaintiffs and defendants cannot understand, call it justice or injustice! The judicial process and the outcome that a handful of people understand, this is a direct conspiracy against the spirit of democracy.
In all the lower courts of the country, the entire work is done in Hindi and other Indian languages, but in the High and Supreme Courts the same work is done only in English. Even judges who know Hindi and other Indian languages get English translation of documents in the hearing of appellate cases.
It is the irony of the country and the Constitution that there is no compulsion of English anywhere in Article 19, 343, 346, 347, 350 and 351. Article 19 gives ‘freedom of expression’ to all citizens of India. This expression can be in any Indian language included in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution. But this fundamental right obtained by the Constitution gets stuck at the doorstep of the High Court and the Supreme Court. Here appeals and petitions are accepted for consideration in English only.
Two points are important in any case. One, the First Information Report and the other the statements of the petitioner, the accused and the witness. The FIR is written in the local language and the complainant, the accused and the witnesses also give their statements in their respective languages. Sometimes the translations of their statements also give meaning to the meaning. In such a situation, the democratic jurist request of the Constitution is rejected at the behest of the High Courts.
All the countries in the world that come in the status of superpower, their mother tongue runs in their courts. As education and prosperity increased in European countries, so did national self-respect. France expelled Latin from its courts in 1539. Germany got rid of Latin in the eighteenth century. The courts of England were once dominated by German and French languages.
There was a fine of thousands of pounds for speaking English here, but in 1362, German and French were completely outlawed and English was made the official language in the courts of England. Mother tongues are also used in Russia, China, Japan, Vietnam and Cuba. From these countries India and the Indian courts have been carrying English till now without taking any lesson or inspiration.
Goya, the courts now need to voluntarily break free from the enslavement of this linguistic apartheid. If the apex court takes this initiative, then Indian languages will soon become a powerful medium for administrative activities. With this initiative, understanding and communication will increase in the justice-process of the common man, but the governance and administration will also move towards becoming a vehicle for the welfare of humanity.