Records, Exhibits transmitted to Supreme Court should be in English, SC issues notice to all High Courts

Reiterating that the language of the Supreme Court is English, a Bench of Justices SA Bobde, L Nageswara Rao and R Subhash Reddy directed the Registrar Generals of all High Courts to ensure that all records which are transmitted to the Supreme Court be translated to English from vernacular language..The Court also issued notice to all High Courts in this regard while hearing an appeal against the imposition of Capital punishment by Allahabad High Court..During the hearing, the Counsel for the appellant told the Court that reliance needs to be placed on several exhibits including post-mortem report, recovery memos, chemical analysis report etc. The exhibits, however, were found to be in vernacular language and had not been translated to English..As a result, the Court was unable to proceed with the hearing and issued a show cause notice to the Registrar General of the Allahabad High Court as to why adequate provisions should not be made in the Rules for the purpose of translating exhibits into English..“Issue notice to the Registrar General of the High Court of Judicature at Allahabad calling upon him to show cause why adequate provisions should not be made in the Rules for translating the documents/exhibits into English language from vernacular language in criminal appeals before this Court and thereafter, transmitting such translations to this Court.”.The Court went on to note that in the case of Pehtu Kanwar vs the State of Bihar, it had issued similar directions when faced with a similar issue of non-translation of records and exhibits..The Court said,.“It is unfortunate that the aforesaid directions given by this Court have not been stricto sensu followed. We reiterate the said order and direct the Registry of all High Courts to comply with the aforesaid directions in letter and spirit and to transmit the entire lower court records in the English language”.The Court, thus, issued notice to the Registrar Generals of all High Courts as well, directing them to ensure that all the records and exhibits are translated into English from the vernacular languages before transmission to the Supreme Court..“we consider it appropriate to consider directing the Registrars General of all High Courts to furnish the translation of the Original Records in English language from vernacular language wherever required, which are to be transmitted to this Court. Article 348 of the Constitution of India mandates that all the proceedings in this Court shall be done in English language..Issue notice to the Registrars General of all High Courts limited to the above extent.”.In the instant appeal against capital punishment, the Court has granted a period of four weeks to furnish translated copies of the records after which the case will be listed..Read the Order.