Supreme Court says no to PIL to translate its judgments to Schedule VIII languages

The Supreme Court today dismissed a Public Interest Litigation petition seeking the translation of Supreme Court judgments to languages set out in Schedule VIII of the Constitution..The petition, filed by advocate Suhaas R Joshi, sought a direction to the Supreme Court to develop a mechanism for translation of its judgments. The case was heard by a three-judge Bench presided by Chief Justice TS Thakur and comprising Justices AK Sikri and R Banumathi..Joshi in his petition had contended that non-availability of authoritative translations of the judgments of Supreme Court is antithetic to the scheme of Part III of the Constitution of India and severely limits the reach of the rights envisaged under Articles 14, 19 (1) (a) and (g), and 21..Joshi had further submitted that absence of judgments in various local languages was affecting the litigants’ right to be heard given the fact that large number of people in India do not understand English..As per the petition.“… the absence of authoritative translations of the judgments of this Hon’ble Court puts a litigant and his counsel, not learned in English, at a great disadvantage in understanding and obtaining judgments for reliance in a court where proceedings are otherwise conducted in vernacular language/s..……it is a common knowledge that a vast majority of the Indian populace is educated in the medium of instruction other than English.”.He had also submitted that non-availability of authoritative translations was resulting in weaker sections of the society being manipulated and put under pressure by people with greater wealth, education and connections..“….the non-availability of the authoritative translations of the judgments of this Hon’ble Court to a litigant or his counsel sets in a situation in the local courts where the weaker parties become vulnerable to manipulation and pressure by the local people with greater wealth, education and connections, thereby creating asymmetrical power relations..…. the absence of authoritative translations of the judgments of this Hon’ble Court puts a litigant and his counsel, not learned in English, at a great disadvantage in understanding and obtaining judgments for reliance in a court where proceedings are otherwise conducted in vernacular language/s.”.Joshi had also submitted that availability of authoritative translations of judgments of Supreme Court would facilitate better access to understanding of law and consequently reduce unwarranted litigation..Based on the above he had prayed for the issuing a writ of Mandamus directing the Registrar General of the Supreme Court to.“…develop a mechanism or facility, in a time bound manner, provisioning reference-pool of readily available authoritative translations of Supreme Court Judgments in various Schedule VIII Languages of the Constitution of India.”.The Court, however, refused to entertain the petition..Recently, a petition seeking use of Hindi in Supreme Court and High Court was dismissed by the Court after the Central government rejected the proposal.