The Indian Judiciary system comprises of one Supreme Court  and 21 High Courts spread across the country under each state. The principal official language of India is Hindi while English is the secondary official language. Article 343(1) of the Constitution provides that Hindi in Devanagari script shall be the Official Language of the Union.

On the other hand Article 348 of the Constitution states the language to be used in the Supreme Court and High Courts and for Acts and Bills etc. shall be English. Permission will be granted for use of Hindi only by the President and of any other language and translation of the same shall be made available in English.

The present scenario at the Madras High Court, Chennai, with a group of lawyers on a fast demanding the use of Tamil as the official court language and committing acts of violence shows a lawyer being looked upon as a rioter. The refusal of Tamil as a court language is based upon the earlier request of the use of Bengali in the Calcutta High Court which was rejected.

Chennai based advocate Manoharan Ellappan, says, “Usage of Tamil is an option that advocates can avail of, if the Presiding Judge is well versed with the language and Judges have been patient in such instances. Filing of pleadings has always been strictly made in English. For an out of State Judge a translator would be required and this is something which we will have to wait and watch.”

However, the proceedings in the High Courts in Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh are permitted in Hindi.

The former Chief Justice of India, Justice Balakrishnan rejected the proposal on the use of languages other than English saying, “The Supreme Court and all the High Courts should have a common language. English should continue to be the language of the Supreme Court and all the High Courts, until in due course Hindi becomes rich and ripe enough to take its place and regional languages should not be introduced as languages of High Courts.”

Justice Balakrishnan added, “If regional language is permitted to be used in orders, decrees and other proceedings of the High Court, it will create difficulties for the judges who may not know the regional language, in order to discharge their judicial functions. The translation being a costly affair may not be accurate and may not reflect the true import of the judgment or order of the High Court. This will cause delay in disposal of cases in Supreme Court.” Justice Balakrishnan was of the view that since the Chief Justice of the Madras High Court would be from outside, as per the policy of the government and as there would be transfer of judges from other High Courts as well, they would find it difficult if the proceedings were allowed in Tamil.

In February 2009, the demand for Regional Benches suggested by the Law Commission had been rejected by the Supreme Court on the basis of its stand that dividing the Supreme Court into a Constitution Bench in Delhi and Cassation Benches in the four regions(Delhi, Chennai/Hyderabad, Kolkata East and  Mumbai West) would affect the country’s unitary character.

The other practical difficulty that may arise will be transfer of Judges. The Chief Justice in most cases also presides over important Public Interest Litigations. Since most Chief Justices are not well versed with regional languages, it may be difficult to make regional languages as court languages. However, some lawyers argue that subject specific benches like the Green Bench, Income Tax Bench, there should also be Regional Language Bench which will help Counsels argue in their mother tounge and not be bound by English.

It is a common procedure that all proceedings in the High Court are undertaken in English. The transcripts, papers, orders are in English in not only Chennai, but in every High Court across the country.

It comes as a surprise that in a nation as developed as ours, the lawyers do not want (or are they reluctant?) to argue in English. Even if they are allowed to argue in Tamil or a regional language, it has to be translated for the Judge. The Judges are conversant in English as a universal language in all the High Courts and this in turn makes it easy in transferring a Judge from one court to another, which happens frequently. The use of regional languages and introducing ‘Regional Benches’ may act as a barrier and cause unnecessary delay and bottlenecks in our judiciary system.

Looking at the present, we have a backlog whereas the number of vacancies are concerned in the various High Courts. Already the Judciary is ailing from a massive backlog, lack of quality judges and vacancies. If we need to find Judges who also have regional language expertize, it may push the backlog and vacanices to new heights.