High Court notice to Haryana over use of Hindi in subordinate courts

Saurabh Malik

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Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, June 22

The use of Hindi in all subordinate civil and criminal courts and tribunals in Haryana today came under the judicial scanner, with the Punjab and Haryana High Court issuing notice of motion to the state and another respondent on a plea challenging the action.

CLAUSE CHALLENGED

In all civil courts and criminal courts in Haryana subordinate to the Punjab and Haryana High Court, all revenue courts and rent tribunals or any other court or tribunal constituted by the state government, work shall be done in Hindi language. — Government amendment

Taking up the matter through video-conferencing, the Bench of Justice Rajan Gupta and Justice Karamjit Singh made it clear that Haryana Advocate General BR Mahajan would address the court on the issue on the next date of hearing.

The state had amended Section 3 of the Haryana Official Language (Amendment) Act, 1969, earlier this year. Section 3-A inserted in the Act on the use of Hindi in courts and tribunals made it clear: “In all civil courts and criminal courts in Haryana subordinate to the Punjab and Haryana High Court, all revenue courts and rent tribunals or any other court or tribunal constituted by the state government, work shall be done in the Hindi language.”

Challenging the amendment, Sameer Jain and other petitioners submitted that the objective of promulgating such a notification was not clear and it had no rational nexus to object, if any, sought to be achieved.

Describing the notification in this regard as discriminatory in nature, Jain submitted that it violated Article 19(1)(g) of the Constitution. Jain referred to Section 30 of the Advocates Act, 1961, to contend that every advocate had the right to practise all over India.

“But due to language constraint, some lawyers may not be able to do so as all law colleges teach in English medium and Hindi version of legal terminologies is not known,” Jain added. Issuing notice of motion, the Bench fixed the matter for further hearing in the last week of June.

As of now, English is lingua franca of high courts and the apex court. Article 348, on language to be used in courts and for Acts and Bills, makes it clear that all proceedings in the Supreme Court and in every high court shall be in the English language. The Constitution has been amended over and over again over a period of time, but the age-old practice has withstood the forces of time.