Till date, the use of regional languages remains limited in High Courts

Importance of regional languages in the legal system

In the different regions of India, people use various languages to communicate with each other. In the High Courts, the demand for regional languages was increased for advocating. It allows common citizens of India to access justice.

Current Scenario

India is a linguistically diverse nation. However, in the present time, it was seen that among 25 High Courts, only four states of India have has authority to use the Hindi language for proceedings and legal documents. Therefore, among the 25 High courts, only 4 courts have had this authority to use Hindi language since 1972 which were Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, and Bihar.

A Right Denied: Language Barriers in Justice

All the citizens of India, through using Articles 19 and 21, have fundamental rights to express and have the right to engage in courtroom proceedings. Therefore, according to Article 21, they have the right to personal liberty. This further includes the aspect of understanding the legal proceedings. However, through getting these constitutional safeguards, the reality is far different from the original scenario. Many common people the language barriers and are forced to navigate the complexities of the legal system, which they do not understand.

Justice in Translation: The Inaccessibility of High Courts

Under Article 21 the people have their “Right to Justice”. According to this article, it is necessary for every citizen of India to understand their case in their regional language before it is presented in front of the Magistrate. However, the current scenario represents a totally different picture which shows that the regional language was mostly absent from the legal proceedings of High courts. This language barrier created problems for the common people who were unable to understand English. It alienates citizens and weakens the very spirit of justice.

Despite the clear constitutional framework and provisions, the current scenario shows the gap between the ideals of justice and its practical implications for the less use of regional languages in High courts.

Change the system of Justice.

In the present time, to make justice accessible to each citizen of India, lawyers and legal experts consider to use of regional languages in the high court proceedings. Therefore, it was observed that In High courts along with Supreme Courts, only the English language was considered as official language. In this perspective, the Chief Justice of India (CJI) D.Y. Chandrachud, while attending the convocation function at Dr Ram Manohar Lohiya National Law University in Lucknow, expressed that judges and lawyers were familiar with the English language for which the whole justice system proceeded in this language.

Due to this, the common people who visited the court with their respective cases failed to understand the legal process. In this aspect, the CJI further express that in many countries, it was observed that both legal education and court proceedings were conducted in regional languages. Through this process and practices, the nations were ensured that all the citizens were able to access justice further. It was effective to inspire youngsters to pursue their careers as lawyers and judges.

Moreover, on this aspect, CJI expressed their opinion that the law students were required to improve their verses on regional languages. In my opinion, it was effective to improve the legal system. The common people, through this easily able to access the legal system. In this aspect, CJI highlighted a report of the research department of the Supreme Court which was done on 81 Universities and colleges.

As per the report, the common people did not understand the English language, and they experienced hurdles in understanding their rights or schemes. Through this, it was clear that the law universities and legal education were imparted in the English language, for which students and the legal aid centres for which fail to explain legal procedures to the common people in regional languages. He also added that he was not saying to eliminate the English language from the judiciary only suggested to added regional languages to remove the gap which were created for language barriers.

Constitution Provisions for Regional Languages in Judiciary

The Constitution of India has some provisions for regional languages in the Judiciary to improve this system. According to Article 348 (1) (a), English were considered as the voice of Law in India’s Apex Courts. Under this article, English was considered the official language in all the proceedings of the Supreme Court and High Courts. English was considered a universally understood language. Due to this, through this Article, the makers of the constitution ensured that the wheels of Justice were continued with the help of using this language by incorporating it in the highest level of the judiciary.

Therefore, under this article, all the documents, records and orders were mandated in the English language. This was effective in maintaining consistency and transparency among all the legal proceedings or documents throughout the nation. Therefore, this provision is not only applicable to the Supreme Court or High courts but also in the same way applicable to all the authorities which were under Article 323A (Administrative Tribunals) and Article 323B (Tribunals for other matters). The purpose of this article was to maintain consistency among the diverse judicial forums with the help of the common English language.

On the other hand, Article 348 (2) Constitution of India provides provisions to embrace linguistic diversity in Justice. This article allows other languages in judicial proceedings, which allows the Constitution to bring the law closer to people. This article empowers the President of India to give authority to use Hindi or any other regional language along with English in Judicial proceedings.

Under this article, the linguistic diversity of India was recognised and justice was accessible to those people who were unable to understand English. Allowing regional language in the High Courts ensures that justice is not only bound to the English-speaking elites but ensures that it is accessible to all citizens regardless of linguistic barriers. Moreover, under this Article, the makers of the constitution ensure that language is not going to be the barrier to justice from regional roots to the pinnacle of Justice.

Present concern for raising this issue

In recent times the importance of regional languages in the High Courts was raised by MPs Dharmasthala Veerendra Heggade and Tejasvi Surya in Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha.  In this concern, they raise the matter in front of the Minister of Law and Justice to promote local languages in court practices, arguments or proceedings to eliminate language barriers from judicial to streamline the whole judicial proceedings.

On this aspect, the Union Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal explains the Government of India previously received a proposal from Tamil Nadu, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, West Bengal and Karnataka to use Tamil, Hindi, Gujarati, Bengali and Kannada in the different law proceedings in their respective proceedings. However, on this matter, the CJI consulted with other judges in the year of 2012, October. Therefore, after consulting with other judges, the bench decided not to accept the proposal.

Litigants turn to be mere spectators in the Court proceedings.

In seven years ago advocate and activist Ashok Aggarwal shared that seven years ago, he collected signatures from around 3000 lawyers and submitted it to the chief justice of Delhi High Court. This strategy aimed to get permission to use the Hindi language in the court proceedings. For this process, a three judges panel were formed, and later, the plea was rejected, as Mr Aggarwal said.

As per Ashok Aggarwal, he encounters litigants who express that despite being present in the courtroom, they did not understand what happened in the proceedings. The most common question which he heard from the people that, “Court mai kya hua?” (What happened in court?). As per them mostly they come from poor backgrounds. Additionally, he added that the issue is most common in High Court proceedings and not in subordinate courts where regional languages were used commonly.

As per his experience, he expresses that he represents “Jhuggi” dwellers and street vendors. Experience of that time, he highlighted that the court did not allow litigants to speak in court, especially during the court proceedings when their lawyer was present. According to him, there should be space to express litigants in their local language. During the court proceedings, Ms Unninayar explained it to the clients as they failed to understand the proceedings which were done in English language only. In this aspect, he also expresses that the court is not for English-speaking people only. It should be available for common English-speaking people. Also, due to this, litigants needed to understand what was happening in courts.

Practical difficulties

The major issues for adopting regional languages have affected the judges or lawyers as they were not proficient in regional languages. On this aspect, senior most advocate Sanjay Hegde expresses an incident at Bihar High Court where a lawyer insisted on speaking in Hindi but the judges were unfamiliar with the language. However, Mr. Hegde expresses that this issue can be resolved through understanding between the Bar and the Bench. Therefore, a different point highlighted by Virag Gupta, an author or advocate that the use of regional language will be helpful for both litigants and lawyers, but it will be difficult for the judges who come from different states.

Moreover, on this aspect, Mr. Gupta further added that according to Article 21, the public has the right to get early justice which were include also the language perspective. Justice needs to be delivered to common people in a language which they can understand. As an example, it was observed that in the Uttar Pradesh High Court, Hindi is allowed along with English, which was still used in substantial judicial proceedings. Regional languages could be permitted to the other states’ High Courts by following the procedures of the constitution to eliminate the judicial gap which were created by a language barrier.

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