‘Language of law has to be English only’

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‘Language of law has to be English only’

TIMES-NEWS NETWORK

Ahmedabad:07.10.2021

The Gujarat high court on Wednesday asserted that when it comes to the law, the language to be used in court is English only.

During a hearing of a case relating to appointments for the post of police sub-inspectors, the bench of Justice J B Pardiwala and Justice V D Nanavati made it clear that for the legal fraternity in India, the mandatory language is only English and the court does not know any other language.

The proceedings were with regard to the scoring of marks in English and Gujarati languages in examinations conducted for recruitment of PSIs. The candidates had scored less marks in English and performed better in Gujarati.

The lawyer argued that in Gujarat people are more conversant with Gujarati and even law books are available in Gujarati.

The judges immediately posed a question, “How will they read the Indian Penal Code and the Criminal Procedure Code? We don’t understandGujarati.” The lawyer argued further that even law books referred to in lower courts are in the Gujaratilanguage and Gujarat’s law journals also provide headnotes of judgments in Gujarati.

This led the judges to comment, “When it comes to the law, it has to be English and only English, and nothing else. You are sending a wrong signal to the legal fraternity. Any lawyer, any upcoming, budding lawyer who wants to practice without English is nothing in this fraternity. How will he understand the judgements delivered by the Supreme Court and various high courts? Will he bank upon the translations undertaken by law journals?” The lawyer argued on the prevalence of Gujarati in the lower courts and said, “But this is the hard reality.” The judges asserted again, “Whatever the reality may be. The language has to be English.”