Promotion of Hindi in Higher Courts

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As far as Supreme Court and High Courts are concerned, Article 348(1)(a) of the Constitution of India states that all proceedings in these Courts shall be in English language. However, Article 348 (2) of the Constitution of India provides that the Governor of a State may, with the previous consent of the President, authorize the use of Hindi Language, or any other language used for any official purposes of the State, in proceedings in the High Court having its principal seat in that State. Further, Section 7 of the Official Language Act, 1963 states that the Governor of a State may, with the previous consent of the President, authorize the use of Hindi or the official language of the State, in addition to the English Language, for the purposes of any judgment, decree or order passed or made by the High Court for that State and where any judgment, decree or order is passed or made in any such language (other than the English Language), it shall be accompanied by a translation of the same in the English Language issued under the authority of the High Court.

The Cabinet Committee’s decision dated 21.05.1965 has stipulated that consent of the Hon’ble Chief Justice of India be obtained on any proposal relating to use of a language other than English in the High Court.

The use of Hindi in the proceedings of High Court of Rajasthan was authorized under Article 348(2) of the Constitution in 1950. After the Cabinet Committee’s decision dated 21.05.1965 as mentioned above, the use of Hindi was authorized in the High Courts of Uttar Pradesh (1969), Madhya Pradesh (1971) and Bihar (1972) in consultation with the Chief Justice of India.

As informed by the Supreme Court of India, Hon’ble Chief Justice of India has constituted the AI Assisted Legal Translation Advisory Committee, headed by Hon’ble Mr. Justice Abhay S. Oka, Judge, Supreme Court of India, for translation of e-SCR Judgments into vernacular languages by using AI Tool. As on 02.12.2023, by using AI translation tools, 31,184 judgments of Supreme Court, have been translated into 16 languages viz. Hindi (21,908), Punjabi (3,574), Kannada (1,898), Tamil (1,172), Gujarati (1,110), Marathi (765), Telugu (334), Malayalam (239), Odia (104), Bengali (39), Nepali (27), Urdu (06), Assamese (05), Garo (01), Khasi (01), Konkani (01). The details of the judgments of Supreme Court translated into 16 languages, as on 02.12.2023, is available on the e-SCR Portal of the Supreme Court website.

A similar Committee has been constituted in all the High Courts, headed by the Judges of the respective High Courts. As of now, the Supreme Court is collaborating with the High Courts in translation of e-SCR Judgments into 16 vernacular languages. As per the information received from the High Courts, 4,983 judgments have been translated into vernacular language and uploaded by the High Courts on their respective websites.

This information was given by the MINISTER OF STATE (INDEPENDENT CHARGE) FOR MINISTRY OF LAW AND JUSTICE; MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF PARLIAMENTARY AFFAIRS; MINISTER OF STATE FOR THE MINISTRY OF CULTURE, SHRI ARJUN RAM MEGHWAL in a written reply in Lok Sabha today.