Courting Telugu: Judge sparks a lingua fracas
With a new court order pronounced in Telugu, there are questions as to whether the government is planning to make Telugu the official language in the cosmopolitan City.
The pronouncement of an order in Telugu by a Nampally court on Thursday has sparked off a debate among various litigant public and legal fraternities.
Many wonder if Teluguisation is essential in a cosmopolitan City whose populace is composed of different people from varied cultures and States.
“Nobody quarrels on the need to promote local language,” said Ram Kiran, a lawyer, “But judicial pronouncement should legible to the litigant public, you know,” he remarked.
A government order exists that demands that all shops and establishments must have their name boards in Telugu. Writing English along with Telugu is all right.
“This government order was issued long ago to encourage Telugu language in the State. It is only now that the government has shown seriousness in it,” said a law teacher, Kusum Kulkarni.
But there is another section of legal profession from the City which has a different view. “Urdu and Hindi languages are very widely spoken and popular among a large section of the populace of the City. Section 272 of The Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973, allows the State government to determine the language for each court within the State, other than the High Court. And the State government has not declared any court language.
Keeping in view the multi lingual population of Hyderabad, English is best suited as the court language for all practical purposes,” law student Syed Fasahath Ali said. Another practising advocate, Inayat, has opined that the State government is moving towards making Telugu the official language everywhere. “There is no irregularity as far as delivering orders and judgments in Telugu in the lower City courts are concerned. It is too premature to assume that all judges and magistrates will follow this example,” Inayat said.
City based social activist and Aam Aadmi leader Abhishek Mawle advocated that the judgments should be made available in a multi-lingual format.
In district courts, delivering the ruling in Telugu is a norm. But it is only in the City courts that the move is questioned. Litigant public and lawyers believe that justice should be visible, and to achieve this ,the public must understand the ruling. Unless it is in a common language, it will miss its aim, they say.
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