Language of Law, Courts and Litigants.

The Supreme Court of India has rejected the state government's proposal to allow use of Gujarati in the state high court. In India, the official language of Higher Courts and Supreme Court is English. The English is lingua franca in India. Although, States like Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan already use of Hindi in the proceedings of their respective high courts.

 

"English could not remain as the official language of the Union for very long as that would be against national self- respect and that only through an Indian language could there be a massive resurgence of the national life."

 -The official Language Commission - 

Appointed on June 7, 1955,

 Report published on 1957

In this post, I am not addressing national self - respect problem and English Language, but deep-rooted problem with our administration of Justice System. Ours is one of the best and effective judiciary in the world. Unfortunately, our judiciary does not see any reason to make a survey whether litigants are happy with the way of its working. They should make a survey and ask the litigants what the areas on administrative side which needs reforms. e.g. In Gujarat High Court, the litigant must give translation of each paper of his brief. If a brief running over 1000 pages then also he has to provide English translation of each of the pages. The cost of translation is anywhere between 40 to 100 Rs per page. Moreover, the practice itself is a time consuming one. High Court registry has strict orders to not put any matter before the bench if full translated version of brief and its annexure is not provided by litigant.  

One of the major problems the litigants are facing is language of the Court. As the matter of fact, only 12.16% of Indian population understand English. According to 2011 census, Gujarat has 74.1% literacy rate. Still, High Court of Gujarat has English as an official language! 

It is well known fact that India has 'Language - Politics' due to South Indian political parties and ShivSena of Maharashtra. The proposal made by GoG is not on the line of politics but to bring a change in justice delivery system. Most of the people of Gujarat have no knowledge of English and Gujarati is the most used language in day - to -day business. 

The Government of Gujarat's proposal to allow use of Gujarati in the High Court of Gujarat reads, 'the use of official language, Gujarati, in the proceedings before the high court would increase active participation, understanding of the people at large in the judicial process and they will be able to redress their grievances in the language with which they are conversant.' 

Justice Must Not Only Be Done, It Must Be Seen to Be Done. 

In Gujarat, most of the litigants have no knowledge of English and they don't understand anything which is going on in the Court of Law. Even if the lawyer is making false statements they can't raise their concern, simply, because they don't understand anything. The Court's orders are also in English Language. I have personal experience of this kind; a matter was dismissed on the ground of 'Non-appearance' of the litigants counsel. When the client asked the reason the counsel who was at a fault, as he didn’t make himself present in the courtroom and the matter was dismissed, told the client that 'Judge doesn't find any merit in your matter and your matter was dismissed! The story has re-occurrence in every single day in the High Court of Gujarat. 

The Indian judiciary system is not 'litigant centric', but, its more 'Judge Centric'. There are many factors for not allowing Gujarati as an official language of the High Court. There are judges who are transferred from another state and have no proficiency of Gujarati language. This is the most cited reason for not allowing use of any local languages in Higher Courts. One more reason is, if a high court adopts the local language, then it would be difficult to cite precedents from this court in other High Courts. Difficulties would also arise in the functioning of the Supreme Court if the High Courts were to adopt different languages. 

There can be no disagreement regarding difficulties arise if local languages are allowed in High Courts. Here, we should apply Bentham's utilitarianism. The litigant's 'Good' and 'Justice' at large must be the centre point for making any decision on Language of the Court. The problems which may be created by usage of Local language can be solved. Every problem has a remedy. It may be difficult but not impossible. The Judges should start seeing the things from the eyes of litigants. 

If we want an inclusive society, every citizen must participate in every aspect of governance. The court of law has higher responsibility. India, currently facing trust deficit and only judiciary has maintained her reputation in the eyes of citizen.

  

If we make Gujarati an official language of the High Court of Gujarat, it will help everybody and litigant will know what is going on in their cases. The CJI must consider this fact and make it 'litigant centric.'  

The litigants are at the receiving ends. In a sense, the ‘Justice’ is at the receiving end.

Moral of the Story: Many remark justice is blind; pity those in her sway, shocked to discover she only knows English Language!