Blitz Bureau
Batting for the need to teach law courses in regional languages and in simpler parlance, Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud said it was imperative to use regional languages in legal proceedings to make the case understandable for litigants.
Addressing the third convocation of Ram Manohar Lohia National Law University, Lucknow, he said that the inability to explain the principles of law to the general public in simple terms was a shortcoming of the legal profession and legal education.
“If the fundamental and basic principles of law are not explained in simpler manner to general public then there is definitely some flaw in the legal profession and legal education,” he added.
“When I came to Allahabad (Prayagraj) after spending my professional life as a judge of the Bombay High Court, it was culturally different for me. The proceedings in the Bombay High Court were conducted in English, though the record, especially, in criminal cases, was maintained in Marathi. In Allahabad High Court I found lawyers starting their arguments in Hindi quite efficiently. It made me realise the potential of lawyers to present their case efficiently even in their local language… I did not mean that we should not include English in the curriculum of legal education, but to include local languages too along with English,” he said.
Discussing the handicaps of court proceedings taking place in English language, the CJI said judges and lawyers were well-versed in English, but the common man is not. “English can’t translate the affection of a mother for her child. At the other end of the spectrum, English can’t express the crime committed in a fit of rage between two farmers who are neighbours,” he maintained.
The CJI further said, “Laws related to regional issues should also be taught in our universities. Suppose a person comes from a village to the university or to the university’s legal aid centre and shares his land-related problem. If the student does not know the meaning of Khasra (land record) and Khatauni (land record document), how will the student be able to help that person?”
“After coming to Uttar Pradesh, I realised how precious land is to the people. I understood the meaning and importance of ‘taal’ and ‘talaiyaa’ (pond) in legal language,” he added. Exhorting the RMLNLU to consider an LLB course in Hindi, the CJI felt that laws related to regional issues should also be taught under law courses in universities.
