Differences between the judges and lawyers in the Madras High Court Bench here over filing English translation of Tamil documents in each and every case got resolved on Thursday with the High Court modifying two judicial orders passed by it on Monday.
A Division Bench comprising Justice P. Jyothimani and Justice M.M. Sundresh modified the two orders passed by the First Bench headed by Chief Justice M. Yusuf Eqbal calling for an explanation from the Registry as to how it was permitting cases to be filed without English translations.
The Division Bench said that the Registrar General of the High Court, on instructions from the Chief Justice, had issued a circular on Wednesday stating that authenticated English translations were required to be filed only when a judge hearing a particular case was not well versed with Tamil and not in all cases.
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Therefore, the Division Bench modified the July 25-orders in accordance with the circular and stated that lawyers themselves could attest the English translations. It also pointed out that the circular had been issued pursuant to a representation made by the advocates expressing their difficulties in filing translated copies.
Earlier, during arguments, Mr. Justice Jyothimani told the lawyers that he would inform the Chief Justice of their demand that writ petitions, including habeas corpus petitions, pertaining to southern districts must not be allowed to be filed in the Principal Seat of the High Court in Chennai.
In the two orders passed on Monday, the Chief Justice had wondered as to how the Registry could permit lawyers and litigants to file cases without translated copies of Tamil documents in spite of a specific rule framed by the High Court for filing English translation of documents in vernacular languages.
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Hearing a batch of writ petitions which did not contain translated copies, the First Bench headed by him had directed the Registrar (Judicial) to submit an explanation “as to how and under what circumstances, in violation of the rules, he has permitted the writ petitions to be numbered and placed before the Bench.”
The Chief Justice's order came pursuant to another order passed by Justice Vinod Kumar Sharma hailing from Punjab. He had stated that English was the official language of the High Court under Article 348 of the Constitution and hence the Registry must not place before his court cases filed without translated copies.