Lok Sabha Question No. 45 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2024-02-02
Subject: Court Proceedings in Regional Lang
Ministry: LAW AND JUSTICE
Asked by: A. Ganeshamurthi, Andimuthu Raja

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF LAW AND JUSTICE DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE

## LOK SABHA

## UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 45

## TO BE ANSWERED ON FRIDAY, THE 2 nd  FEBRUARY, 2024 Court Proceedings in Regional Languages

## 45. SHRI A. GANESHAMURTHI:

## SHRI A. RAJA:

Will the Minister of LAW AND JUSTICE be pleased to state:-

- (a) the progress of conducting court proceedings from district courts to High Courts in regional languages;
- (b) whether  online  filing  of  petitions,  affidavits  and  counters  and  rejoinders  have been fully facilitated in all the courts, if so, the details thereof;
- (c) whether the appearance of lawyers and arguments have been fully implemented, if so, the details thereof;
- (d) the details of High Courts where option is given to the lawyers to appear either in person or virtually; and
- (e) the  assistance  provided  by  the  Ministry  in  getting  judgments  in  regional languages for the benefit of common people?

## ANSWER

MINISTER OF STATE (INDEPENDENT CHARGE) OF THE MINISTRY OF LAW AND JUSTICE; MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF PARLIAMENTARY AFFAIRS; AND MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF CULTURE (SHRI ARJUN RAM MEGHWAL)

(a):  As  far  as  Supreme  Court  and  all  High  Courts  are  concerned,  Article  348(1)(a)  of  the Constitution of India states that all proceedings in these Courts shall be in English language. However, Article 348 (2) of the Constitution of India provides that the Governor of a State may, with the previous consent of the President, authorize the use of Hindi Language, or any other language used for any official purposes of the State, in proceedings in the High Court having its principal seat in that State. Further, Section 7 of the Official Language Act, 1963 states that the Governor of a State may, with the previous consent of the President, authorize the use of Hindi or the official language of the State, in addition to the English Language, for the  purposes  of  any  judgment,  decree  or  order  passed  or  made  by  the  High  Court  for  that State and where any judgment, decree or order is passed or made in any such language (other than  the  English  Language),  it  shall  be  accompanied  by  a  translation  of  the  same  in  the English Language issued under the authority of the High Court.

The Cabinet Committee's decision dated 21.05.1965 has stipulated that consent of the Hon'ble Chief Justice of India be obtained on any proposal relating to use of a language other than English in the High Court.

The use of Hindi in the proceedings of High Court of Rajasthan was authorized under Article  348(2)  of  the  Constitution  in  1950.  After  the  Cabinet  Committee's  decision  dated 21.05.1965 as mentioned above, the use of Hindi was authorized in the High Courts of Uttar Pradesh  (1969),  Madhya  Pradesh  (1971)  and  Bihar  (1972)  in  consultation  with  the  Chief Justice of India.

Government of India had received  proposals  from  the  Government  of Tamil  Nadu, Gujarat, Chhattisgarh, West Bengal and Karnataka to permit use of Tamil, Gujarati, Hindi, Bengali  and  Kannada  in  the  proceedings  of  the  Madras  High  Court,  Gujarat  High  Court, Chhattisgarh High Court, Calcutta High Court and Karnataka High Court respectively. The advice of Chief Justice of India was sought on these proposals as per the Cabinet Committees decision taken in 1965 and the Chief Justice of India vide his D.O. letter dated 16.10.2012 intimated  that  the  Full  Court  in  its  meeting  held  on  11.10.2012,  after  due  deliberations, decided not to accept the proposals.

Based  on  another  request  from  the  Government  of  Tamil  Nadu,  the  Government requested the Chief Justice of India to review the earlier decisions in this regard and convey the consent of the Supreme Court of India in July, 2014. The Chief Justice of India vide his D.O.  letter  dated  18.01.2016  conveyed  that  the  Full  Court,  after  extensive  deliberations, unanimously resolved that the proposals could not be accepted.

As far as District and Subordinate Courts are concerned, the provision of Article 235 of  the  Constitution  of  India  vests  the  administrative  control  over  these  courts  with  the concerned High Courts in the respective states.  Thus, the use of regional language in lower courts  is  generally  decided  by  the  High  Court  and  State  Government  concerned  in consultation with each other and accordingly implemented it in their respective district and subordinate courts.

(b) to (d): Under eCourts Mission Mode Project, eFiling has been made functional and it is available for all High Courts and District & Subordinate Courts across India. New e-filing system  (version  3.0)  has  been  rolled  out  for  the  electronic  filing  of  legal  papers  with upgraded features. Draft eFiling rules have been framed by eCommittee, Supreme Court of India  (SCI)  which  were  circulated  to  all  High  Courts  for  better  implementation  of  online filing and are available on the website of eCommittee, SCI. A total of 20 High Courts has adopted the model rules of e-Filing as on 31.10.2023. To promote eFiling all Central & State Government  departments  including  the  PSUs  have  been  requested  to  use  e  filing  in  all commercial disputes coming up in the commercial courts. Further, instructions  have  been issued  by  eCommittee,  Supreme  Court  of  India  to  all  HCs  to  ensure  that  all  Government litigations  are  e-filed.  Similar  communication  has  also  been  shared  by  the  Department  of Justice to all Ministries requesting to use e filing in all Government litigation.

Till  December 2023, 7,96,687 cases were filed in High Courts and  19,65,618 were filed in District & Taluka Courts using eFiling facility. Under eCourts Mission Mode Project, video conferencing emerged as the mainstay of the Courts during the Covid lockdown period as  physical  hearings  and  normal  court  proceedings  in  the  congregational  mode  were  not possible.  One  video  conference  equipment  each  was  provided  to  all  Court  Complexes including taluk level courts and additionally funds were released for additional VC equipment for 14,443 court rooms. Funds for setting up 2506 VC Cabins have been made available. The District & Subordinate courts heard 2,17,99,976 cases since Covid lockdown started, while the High Courts heard 82,76,595 cases (totaling 3 cr) till 31.12.2023using video conferencing.  The  Supreme  Court  held  6,24,427  hearings  from  23 rd March  2020  till 04.01.2024  since  the  beginning  of  lockdown  period.  VC  facilities  have  also  been  enabled between 3240 court complexes and corresponding 1272 jails.

In WP (Crl.) No. 351/2023, Sarvesh Mathur vs The Registrar General, High Court of Punjab & Haryana, the Supreme Court on 06.10.2023 passed an order that no High Court shall deny access to video conferencing facilities or hearing through the hybrid mode to any member  of  the  Bar  or  litigant  desirous  of  availing  of  such  a  facility.  Moreover,  all  State Governments have been asked to provide necessary funds to the High Courts to put in place the facilities requisite for that purpose within the specified time frame.

(e)        As  informed  by  the  Supreme  Court  of  India,  Hon'ble  Chief  Justice  of  India  has constituted the AI Assisted Legal Translation Advisory Committee, headed by Hon'ble Mr. Justice Abhay S. Oka, Judge, Supreme Court of India, for translation of e-SCR Judgments into vernacular languages by using AI Tool. As on 02.12.2023, by using AI translation tools, 31,184  judgments  of  Supreme  Court,  have  been  translated  into  16  languages  viz.  Hindi (21,908), Punjabi (3,574), Kannada (1,898), Tamil (1,172), Gujarati (1,110), Marathi (765), Telugu (334), Malayalam (239), Odia (104), Bengali (39), Nepali (27), Urdu (06), Assamese (05),  Garo (01), Khasi (01), Konkani (01). The details of the judgments of Supreme Court translated  into  16  languages,  as  on  02.12.2023,  is  available  on  the  e-SCR  Portal  of  the Supreme Court website.

A  similar  Committee  has  been  constituted  in  all  the  High  Courts,  headed  by  the Judges of the respective High Courts. As of now, the Supreme Court is collaborating with the High  Courts  in  translation  of  e-SCR  Judgments  into  16  vernacular  languages.  As  per  the information  received  from  the  High  Courts,  4,983  judgments  have  been  translated  into vernacular language and uploaded by the High Courts on their respective websites.