Lok Sabha Question No. 77 (STARRED), answered on 2024-07-26
Subject: Permanent Bench of Supreme Court at Chennai
Ministry: LAW AND JUSTICE
Asked by: Dr. T Sumathy Alias Thamizhachi Thangapandian, Thiru D M Kathir Anand

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA

## MINISTRY OF LAW AND JUSTICE

## DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE

## LOK SABHA

## STARRED QUESTION NO. *77

## TO BE ANSWERED ON FRIDAY, THE 26.07.2024

## Permanent Bench of Supreme Court at Chennai

## *77. DR. T SUMATHY ALIAS THAMIZHACHI THANGAPANDIAN: THIRU D M KATHIR ANAND:

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

- (a) whether  the  Government  has  received  any  request  from  the  legal fraternity  and  civil  society  for  establishment  of  a  permanent  Bench  of the Supreme Court of India at Chennai and if so, the details thereof and
- the stand of the Government thereon;
- (b) the steps taken by the Government to expedite the clearance of pendency of cases in Supreme Court;
- (c) the  steps  taken  by  the  Government  to  mitigate  the  transportation problems  and  language  issues  faced  by  the  people  living  far  away  in Southern part of the country seeking justice in the Supreme Court;
- (d) whether  the  Government  has  taken  an  affirmative  stand  on  making Tamil as an official court language; and
- (e) if so, the details thereof?

## ANSWER

## MINISTER OF STATE (INDEPENDENT CHARGE) OF THE MINISTRY OF  LAW  AND  JUSTICE;  AND  MINISTER  OF  STATE  IN  THE MINISTRY OF PARLIAMENTARY AFFAIRS

## (SHRI ARJUN RAM MEGHWAL)

- (a) to (e): A statement is laid on the Table of the House.

Statement referred to in reply to parts (a) to (e) in respect of  Lok Sabha Starred  Question  no.  77  due  for  answer  on  26 th July,  2024  regarding 'Permanent Bench of Supreme Court at Chennai' asked by Dr. T Sumathy alias Thamizhachi Thangapandian and Thiru D M Kathir Anand.

(a)  to  (e): Article  130  of  the  Constitution  of  India  provides  that  the  Supreme Court shall sit in Delhi or in such other place or places as the Chief Justice of India may, with the approval of the President, from time to time, appoint.

2. Representations  have  been  received  from  time  to  time  from  various quarters for establishment of Benches of Supreme Court in various parts of the Country.  The  Eleventh  Law  Commission  in  its  125th  Report  titled  'The Supreme Court -A Fresh Look', submitted in 1988, reiterated the recommendations  made  by  Tenth  Law  Commission  in  its  95th  Report  for splitting the Supreme Court into two namely (i) Constitutional Court at Delhi and (ii) Court of appeal or Federal Court sitting in North, South, East, West and Central India. The Eighteenth Law Commission in its 229th Report submitted in 2009 had also suggested that a Constitutional Bench be set up at Delhi and four Cassation Benches be set up in the Northern region at Delhi, Southern region at Chennai/Hyderabad, Eastern region at Kolkata and Western region at Mumbai.

3. The matter was referred to the Chief Justice of India, who informed that after  consideration  of  the  matter,  the  Full  Court  in  its  meeting  held  on  18th February, 2010, found no justification for setting up of benches of the Supreme Court  outside  Delhi.  The  Chief  Justice  of  India  had  earlier  conveyed  similar views in August, 2007.

4. In Writ Petition WP(C) No. 36/2016 on establishment of National Court of Appeal,  the  Supreme  Court  vide  its  judgment  dated  13.07.2016  deemed  it proper to refer the aforementioned issue to Constitutional Bench for authoritative pronouncement. The matter is currently sub-judice in the Supreme Court.

5. The issues concerning disposal of pending cases in courts is within the domain of the judiciary. Timely disposal of cases in courts depends on several factors which, inter-alia, include availability of adequate number of judges and judicial officers, supporting court staff and physical infrastructure, complexity of facts involved, nature of evidence, involvement of various stake holders viz. advocates, investigation agencies, witnesses, litigants etc.

6. In order to ensure that there is no pendency due to shortage of Judges in the  Supreme  Court,  timely  action  was  taken  on  Supreme  Court  Collegium (SCC) recommendationsto ensure that the Supreme Court is functioning at full strength.

7. The Central Government has been fully committed to speedy disposal of cases in accordance with Article 21 of the Constitution and reducing pendency. Several initiatives have been taken to provide an ecosystem to facilitate faster disposal of cases by the judiciary which includes enhancing judicial infrastructure and use of technology such as e-filing, Video Conferencing etc. to allow virtual access to litigants.

8. 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.  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.

9. The Committeeof the Cabinet appointed to consider the different aspects of  the  Official  Language  Policy  on  21.05.1965  stipulated  that  consent  of  the Chief Justice of India be obtained on any proposal relating to use of a language other than English in the High Court.

10. Proposals  had  earlier  been  received  from  the  Governments  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. In accordance with the decision of the Cabinet Committee appointed to consider the different aspects of the  Official Language  Policy,  the  advice  of  Chief  Justice  of  India  was  sought  on  these proposals.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.

11. Based on a subsequent request from the Government of Tamil Nadu, the Chief Justice of India was requested to review the earlier decisionsin this regard and  convey  the  consent  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  India.  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.

12. In  order to  promote  access  in different  regional languages  the  Supreme Court  has  developed  Supreme  Court  Vidhik  Anuvaad  Software  (SUVAS),  a machine  assisted  translation  tool,  trained  by  Artificial  Intelligence  (AI),  with technical  support  from  Ministry  of  Electronics  and  Information  Technology. This  tool  is  specially  designed  for  the  judicial  domain  and  currently  has  the capacity  of translating Judicial Documents, Orders or Judgments from English into eighteen Indian languages and vice versa. As on 15.07.2024, by using AI translation  tools,  51,501  judgements  of  Supreme  Court,  have  been  translated into  18  languages  viz.  Assamese  (34),  Bengali  (622),  Garo  (03),  Gujarati (1,299),  Hindi  (36,260),  Kannada  (1,911),  Kashmiri  (0),  Khasi  (01),  Konkani (14),  Malayalam  (1409),  Marathi  (2248),  Nepali  (101),  Odia  (190),  Punjabi (3,825),  Santhali  (22),  Tamil  (2,256),  Telugu  (1069)  and  Urdu  (237).  The details of the judgments of Supreme Court translated into 18 languages, as on 15.07.2024, is available on the e-SCR Portal of the Supreme Court website.

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