IN the Constitution it was accepted that in the higher judiciary i.e. in the High Courts and the Supreme Court linguistic change should not be brought with immediate effect. But the intention of the Constituent Assembly was clear that English has to be replaced by Indian languages.
The Official Language Commission was constituted under Article 344 which had representatives of all 14 languages which were included in Schedule 8. The Commssion in its report pointed out the preparations which were prerequisite for linguistic change viz. vocabulary, books, training etc. The report of the Commission was considered by a Parliamentary Committee presided over by the then Home Minister Govind Ballabh Pant. The Committee accepted all the major recommendations of the Commission. After that the government issued a Presidential Order on April 27, 1960. Certain tasks were assigned to the Ministry of Law by this Presidential Order e.g. translation of Central Acts in Hindi and regional languages, enacting legislation for the use of Hindi and State official languages in the Judgements, decrees and orders of the High Courts.
The Central Government, in pursuance of the order enacted the Official Language Act, 1963 in which provision was made regarding authoritative texts of Acts, rules etc. in Hindi and regarding the language of High Courts.
In 1975 a Parliamentary Committee was appointed under the Official Language Act. The Government after studying its various reports issued a number of Presidential Orders. The Order of 1998 is focused on the work to be done by the Ministry of Law.
A perusal of the Constitution, the Official Language Act and the Presidential Orders of 1960 and 1998 make it amply clear that in the field of legislation as well as in the justice delivery system linguistic change is the objective set to be achieved by the Ministry of Law.
In fine, the picture is very clear. Upto the level of District Judge all work shall be done through the Official Language of the State. Provision has been made in this regard in the Civil Procedure Code and the Criminal Procedure Code. The High Courts will function in two languages-Hindi or the State language. When the time for change over comes the Supreme Court will function through Hindi.
In the initial stage the authorised translation of Bills shall be in Hindi but gradually Bills will be drafted and introduced in Hindi. Authoritative texts of existing Central Acts will be made in the State languages. Legislation in the States shall be prepared in their official languages.
In order to accomplish this work the Ministry of Law constituted, in 1961, the Official Language (Legislative) Commission. In 1976 it was replaced by the Official Languages Wing, a part of the Ministry of Law. The Official Language Wing has published the authoritative texts of Central Acts in Hindi. A standard legal glossary has been compiled and printed. The Central Hindi Committee under the chairmanship of the Prime Minister and also the Presidential Order of 1998 directed the Ministry of Law to undertake drafting of the Bills in Hindi.
The Official Language Wing had already compiled a bilingual book centraining standard clauses-as a tool to help the Hindi draftsman. But even after this clear mandate no step was taken to commence original drafting in Hindi. On the other hand road blocks were created. The Official Language Wing had a strength of 28 translators. In the last 20 years it has been reduced to 3. Similarly, the posts of draftsman have been brought down and are now 1/4th of what they were in 1990.
The Official Language Wing of the Legislative Department was burdened with the responsibility to guide and encourage the States. Earlier a number of conferences of State Law Ministers were convened. In all major States a watchdog committee was constituted to oversee the progress. The officer in charge of the Official Language Wing was invariably a member of all such committees. For the last 20 years there has been no meeting of any these committees.
Similarly, there was a coordination committee of Hindi Speaking States. The State Law Secretaries were members of the committee. The meeting was convened by the Official Language. Wing. For more than 20 years the committee is dead for all purposes.
In 1969, the Ministry of Law commenced the publication of two law reports in Hindi. Later in place of two, three law reports were brought out. It had been decided that all reportable judgements of the Supreme Court would be published. Gradually the demand for these reports grew up and digests were also printed.
During the past 20 years the number of officers have been drastically reduced. Out of 13 posts of sub-editors only 3 remain. They have also been filled on ad hoc basis in an arbitrary manner. Out of 7 posts of assistant editors only 4 survive.
There has been manifold increase in the reportable judgements of the Supreme Court but the page numbers of the reports have been cut down. There is a distinct possibility that the publication may be shut down. In 1969 publication of texts books in law was commenced. An assistant editor was appointed for the purpose. Now there is no editor for this work and the past 20 years have seen only 1 or 2 books published.
In order to promote writing in Hindi the Ministry instituted a scheme for awarding prizes and honouring the writers. There were 5 first prizes of Rs. 21,000 and 2nd, 3rd and consolation prizes. The amount Rs. 21,000 was fixed in 1980 when the salary of Secretary of Government was Rs. 3,500. Today the salary of the Secretary is 90,000 (DA is seperate) but the prize money is static. In other ministries it is generally more than one lakh.
The authors who won the prizes were honoured in a public function. Now for the past 25 years there has been no award function. Even certificates are sent after a delay of many years.
The Government of India in 1967 constituted Hindi Advisory Committees (HACs) only in 3 ministries which had a major role in linguistic switch over viz. Law, Education (now HRD) and Home. The Committee for Law Ministry had eminent judges, advocates and law teachers as members. For example, Justice SC Mishra (Chief Justice of Patna), Justice Shiv Dayal (Chief Justice of Madhya Pradesh), Justice BP Beri (Chief Justice of Rajasthan), Shri Ved Vyas, Shri GN Dixit and Shri LM Singhvi (all senior advocates of Supreme Court), Prof Balkrishna, Prof PK Tripathi, Shri Ganga Sharan Sinha, Shri Sudhakar Pande. Gradually, the membership was downgraded. The present committee has not a single judge, advocate or law teacher as member. Persons who have no knowledge or experience can hardly advise on a technical matter.
Earlier, the meetings of HAC would be convened every three months. In the meeting the progress report of Official Language Wing and Vidhi Sahitya Prakashan would be discussed. Dates and places of book exhibition and seminars for spread of Hindi would be fixed. Now the HAC is convened generally once in 2 years. There is no formal agenda.
The officers working for Hindi and other languages are discriminated. Earlier all work was under the top officer of the Official Language Wing. He being a technical person could coordinate and guide his co-workers. Now the incharge is an English draftsman who has no qualification or experience of translation. He can neither guide nor coordinate. This is against all principles of public administration.
The predecessors of the present government enacted the Constitution and the Official Language Act and issued the Presidential orders. The present government claims to be favouring the common man. The Law Minister many times declared that his agenda is to reform the judiciary. He ought to know that the use of State languages would reduce the harassment and increase the participation of the common men. Linguistic change would be beneficial to the common man.
The Law Minister shows concern for International Commercial disputes. He issues wideranging statements concerning the judiciary and the advocates. It would be better if he is able to find time to look into the working of this part of his ministry. If he is able to set this on the right path he would be able to achieve and bring about a perceptible change in the legal system and would win applause of the masses.
(The writer is retired Additional Secretary to Government of India)
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