The Patna High Court has held that Writ Petitions of Tax Reference cases can be filed in Hindi along with the Authentic English Translation.
The High Court was considering a writ for release of the petitioner from judicial custody and to declare the detention order dated 16th April 2015 as invalid in proceedings arising out of the Bihar Electricity Act, 2003 in a matter relating to the theft of electricity. The writ petition is drafted in Hindi Devnagari Script which issue stands referred herein to be resolved by a Full Bench.
The Full Judge bench comprising of Chief Justice Amreshwar Pratap Sahi, Justice Ashutosh Kumar and Justice Rajeev Ranjan Prasad had delivered three separate Judgment on this issue.
In the Judgment, the Chief Justice Observed that “it would not be appropriate to construe that there was no prohibition in the Notification dated 9th of May, 1972 for using the Hindi Devnagari Script. The Notification only recites not that petitions under Article 226 and 227 of the Constitution of India as well as tax references will be presented “only” in English. This does not expressly prohibit the use of Hindi to the exclusion of English. It is open to a litigant to present his pleadings in Hindi but the authoritative text of it has to be in English to the extent as provided for in the Notification. This is a matter of procedure where the same Notification does not prevent the oral argument to be advanced in Hindi as in the case of Madhu Limaye”.
Also observed that, “There is no statutory or Constitutional bar for advancing oral submissions in Hindi. Thus, Hindi is not an alternative language but a language available as an elective option at the privilege of the user in Court proceedings subject to the limitation as contained in the Notification dated 9th May, 1972. This prescription of limitation is of the year 1972 and after a passage of more than half a century the same has come to stay without any practical inconvenience in Court proceedings with the use of English language in presenting writ petitions and tax references in English”.
“The Notification is neither unconstitutional nor it can be said to be suffering from any infirmity for being read down by this Court as held by the Division Bench in the case of Binay Kumar Singh (supra). There is no infringement of any legal rights either of the litigant or of any Lawyer nor is there any infringement of a fundamental right which is always subject to reasonable restrictions permissible under the Constitution. The impugned Notification is yet within the said parameters of law. The litigants or the Lawyers do not loose their right of judicial review before this Court which is not jeopardized in any manner and if at all a litigant seeks for any such problem arising out of the use of a particular language to ventilate his grievances there is an entire machinery of the Legal Aid Services Authority with its branch in the High Court itself for proceeding such aid to any litigant” the Chief Justice also added in his separate Judgment.
Concluding his Judgment, he also added that, “it necessary to provide that so long as the Notification dated 9th of May, 1972 is not modified, rescinded or substituted in any form, a petition under Article 226 and 227 of the Constitution of India or a tax reference can be filed in Hindi but it will have to be accompanied by an English version as well which shall be the authentic version of the petition for all legal purposes so long as the Notification dated 9th of May 1972 stands”.
While dissenting the views of other judges, Justice Prasad said that, With utmost respect, I regret my inability to agree with the aforesaid view for the reasons stated.
While Concluding the Judgment, Justice Ashutosh Kumar said that, the interpretation of the notification of 1972 given by Hon’ble the Chief Justice serves the twin purposes of pandering to the aspirations of preserving and promoting Hindi language and at the same time maintaining the exclusivity of the court language to English, for the benefit of the accessibility to an everburgeoning case materials, case laws and research works in the area of law, which is mostly in the English language and which is necessary in the background of the diverse, multicultural and multi-linguistic country.
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