Politicians again divding India

The following was published in "The Telegraph" on the 28th Jan.
It seems our Hindi speaking politicians are at their old game of igniting violence and dividing India further.
Since they do not know English, they do not want to raise themselves. It is easier pulling down the others to their standards. Going down is so much easier than climbing up.

Radheshyam

MIND YOUR LANGUAGE
The law commission has rejected a proposal to make Hindi compulsory in the Supreme Court and the High Courts. V. Kumara Swamy on why the national language is failing to make the cut in our legal system

India’s national language may have marched into every drawing room in the country thanks to television, but its entry into our law courts has been less emphatic. And now, with a Law Commission of India report rejecting a parliamentary committee recommendation that Hindi should be the compulsory lingua franca of the Supreme Court and the high courts, it may be a while before Hindi becomes the sole language of communication in our legal system.

The 216th report of the commission, titled “Non-feasibilty of Introduction of Hindi as Compulsory Language in the Supreme Court of India”, was presented to the government last month. In it, the commission’s chairman, Justice (retd) R. Lakshmanan, notes that language is a highly emotional issue. “It should not be thrust on people against their will, since it is likely to become counterproductive,” he warns.

In 2005 the Committee of Parliament on Official Language asked the government to amend Article 348 of the Constitution. Article 348 states that, “all the proceedings in the Supreme Court and in every High Court shall be in English.” It adds that “the authoritative texts”, such as the acts passed by Parliament or the state legislatures and all ordinances promulgated by the President or the Governor of a state, rules, regulations and by-laws should also be written in English. However, Section 2 of Article 348 makes an exception to this rule, stating that the Governor of a state may, “with the previous consent of the President,” authorise the use of Hindi, or another language, in high court proceedings.

The committee’s recommendations were clearly aimed at making Hindi more acceptable in courts of law. “We have already taken recourse to this provision in some states. We would like to extend it to the whole country through an amendment,” explains Jai Prakash, a member of Parliament and of the parliamentary committee that pushed for the amendment.

The move to make Hindi compulsory was also to enable the government departments that carry out judicial or quasi-judicial functions to deliver orders in Hindi. At present, these departments are unable to pass orders in Hindi because the appeal against their orders in the Supreme Court would anyway have to be conducted in English.

Proponents of Hindi point out that Article 343 of the Constitution declares Hindi to be the official language of the Union. They also cite Article 351 which states that it is the “duty of the Union” to promote Hindi. Of course, the most compelling argument against the use of English in our law courts is that many litigants are unfamiliar with the language, and hence would be much more comfortable if cases were dealt with in the vernacular.

But Justice Rajendra Babu, former chief justice of the Supreme Court, feels that making Hindi compulsory in our courts would give rise to its own set of problems. “Our jurisprudence is rooted in the British and other foreign laws and the laws are all documented in English. Translating and re-interpreting them in Hindi or other languages would not be easy,” he says.

Still, some states have already introduced Hindi in their high courts. For example, the high courts of Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Bihar have allowed their lawyers to argue in Hindi. And in the lower courts of almost all the states lawyers and judges use the local language of the respective state.

M.N. Venkatachaliah, a former chief justice of the Supreme Court, feels that Hindi should get the prominence it deserves. “…One must acknowledge that Hindi as our national language must assert its rightful place in all areas of our national life and the higher judiciary should be no exception. The Committee of Parliament on Official Language has rightly emphasised the importance of this matter,” he writes in his response to the Law Commission’s report.

However, legal experts feel that much is lost in translation, more so with regard to legal matters. “Translating judgements passed in Hindi in the Allahabad High Court have always been a problem,” says Krishna Lal Grover, president, Advocates’ Association, Allahabad High Court. He also contends that because lawyers in the Hindi belt are used to arguing cases in Hindi, they are at a disadvantage in the Supreme Court where English is the only accepted language.

There is another problem in making Hindi compulsory in all Indian law courts. Schedule VIII of the Constitution lists as many as 22 languages, and similar demands could come from champions of all regional languages. In fact, such demands started pouring in as soon as the parliamentary committee tabled its recommendations. Last year the Bar Councils of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry unanimously passed a resolution demanding the introduction of Tamil in the Madras High Court. R. Dhanapal Raj, former chairman of the Bar Council of Tamil Nadu and a member of the Bar Council of India, says, “Why should we have Hindi when our people hardly understand the language? Moreover, most of our students study law in Tamil. Let Tamil, and not Hindi, be the official language of the Madras High Court.” Karnataka and Kerala are also pushing for the use of Kannada and Malayalam respectively in their legal proceedings.

But experts point out that the use of vernacular languages in courts of law has certain logistical difficulties. “It is now mandatory for the chief justice of a high court to be from outside the state. Besides, at any given point there may be as many as six to seven judges from other states in a court who do not know the local language,” says S. Jagadeesan, a former judge of the Madras High Court.

Well known author Buddhadev Guha, who campaigns for the use of Bengali in West Bengal, also sees no point in pushing vernaculars into our courts of law. “Even at the height of our agitation for using Bengali in conducting the affairs of the state, we never asked the government to make it the official language of the Calcutta High Court. The nuances of the English language, especially legal language, will be difficult to translate,” he says.

Of course, some legal experts dismiss the debate as inconsequential. “Lakhs of cases are pending in our high courts. What is needed is delivering justice without delay, not squabbling over languages,” says Justice Babu.

He may have a point.