BJP’s Rajya Sabha Member of Parliament, Tarun Vijay on Monday urged the President of India, Pranab Mukherjee to request the Centre to take immediate steps for declaring Tamil for use as a language of the Madras High Court for passing orders and judgments.
It might be recalled that Tamil Nadu government had passed a resolution that Tamil should be made court language in the High Court. On receiving the proposal, the Central Government had forwarded it to the then Chief Justice of India, K.G. Balakrishnan and a full court meeting of the Supreme Court rejected the proposal.
The Full Court had stated that the Supreme Court and the High Courts should use a common language, and preferably English should remain as the official language of the Supreme Court and all the High Courts. It had said “in case the Chief Justice of Madras High Court is not from the state, he will find it very difficult to follow the court proceedings, if they are in Tamil. The Judges, who are from other states, will face considerable difficulty to discharge their judicial functions and proper enforcement of Indian law if the medium of language changed. Translating the orders and other legal proceedings, would be a costly affair. Further, it may also hamper the speedy and effective delivery of justice.”
The representation made by Mr. Vijay said “in most of the north Indian High courts, language of the local people is accepted as the medium of communication and delivering judgments. The logic that many Judges belong to different language groups do not hold good as Indian nation holds all Indian languages in same respect and honour and we have found ways and means in other High Courts to deal with such an issue.”
Pointing out that all political parties in Tamil Nadu had demanded making Tamil as the court language in the High Court, it should be accepted and steps taken immediately in this regard, the representation said.
