SC, high courts should give judgments in regional languages: Uttarakhand Law Commission member

The Supreme Court and high courts should pronounce judgments in regional languages that would enable a majority of the country's population to understand the verdicts, an Uttarakhand Law Commission member said.

When the Constitution came into force, an arrangement was made for delivery of judgments of high courts and the apex court in English for a period of fifteen years only under Article 348, Chandrashekhar Upadhyay told reporters on Monday here at an event.

Article 348 of the Constitution provides for all proceedings in the higher courts to be carried out in English.

The former Uttarakhand advocate general said the provision of the Constitution that is in force for the last 70 years is still practising what was temporary and supposed to be in place for only 15 years.

I don't have any grudge against English, he clarified.

However, a majority of the population of the country has every right to know the judgment of high courts and the apex court in their regional language also, he reasoned.

He pointed out that the judgments may be delivered in any of the 22 languages under the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution along with English.

According to Upadhyay, his target is to reach two crore signatures to take this issue to the Centre.

In the first phase, he is targeting 10 lakh signatures each from UP, Uttarakhand and Delhi to be completed by March 15.

The signatures collected in UP would be submitted to social worker Anna Hazare while the signatures of other states would be submitted to a similar renowned figure, he added.