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Hemant Agarwal (ha21@rediffmail.com Mumbai : 9820174108)     02 January 2009

Tell accused charges in mother tongue: HC

Dear All,
The following appeared in  "Times of India", Mumbai Edition on January 02,2009, page no. 04.
May be useful for future references.

The Bombay HC Division Bench order, can be used as a precedent, for various matters, more specifically so in Criminal matters, like :
1. A Tamilian getting arrested in New Delhi on serious criminal charges (Delhi has all paper work in Hindi). The offender would plead total lack of Hindi while receiving Charge Sheet at Trial stage and easily get away, while deliberately appealing in High Court.
2. Further it can be used (as a precedent), virtually in all cross country (cross language) legal matters, even involving Revenue matters, property matters, civil and family matters.
3. This type of precedent would even do away with "Regional Language" being used in Govt. offices.
4. A Consumer, would file a complaint of "deficient service" if he says that the railway station name board / announcement is in a language other than the one he understands.

Some complicated issues would be raked up in future.

I request for opinions.

Keep Smiling ... HemantAgarwal

 

Tell accused charges in mother tongue: HC

Mumbai: A person accused of a crime has the right to know the charges levelled against him in a language he understands, the Bombay High Court has ruled.
   A division bench of Justice K J Rohee and Justice A P Bhangale recently quashed a detention order passed by the state against Nagpur resident Firoz Khan (35). The court found that Khan had not been provided with copies of vital documents, used as evidence against him, in Hindi, a language he was fluent in. The papers were in Marathi.
   “They are vital documents and, on account of failure to supply their Hindi translation to Khan, (his) right to make effective representation was affected,’’ said the judges.
   The Nagpur police chief had declared Khan a “dangerous’’ person. The order said having been satisfied that Khan’s activities were prejudicial to the “maintenance of public order’’ and that he was “likely to indulge in such activities’’, he was directed to be detained for one year. The state confirmed the order and Khan was detained at Nagpur Central Jail.
   Besides challenging the grounds for detention, Khan said his mother tongue was Urdu and he did not understand Marathi. Though he was conversant in Hindi, the authorities had not supplied him with the documents they were relying on in that language.
   Though public prosecutor N W Sambre said the detention order and the reason were explained to Khan in Hindi, the court agreed with the defence that copies of Hindi translations of certain crucial documents were not provided to him. Further, there was no endorsement as to who was the officer who explained the charges to Khan in Hindi.



Learning

 7 Replies

Manish Singh (Advocate)     02 January 2009

i dont find any absurdity in this judgement infact its based on our laws and extremely important for equal justice. a person needs to have a copy of the charges which either he or his counsel understads.


can anybody make a reply without having a copy of the allegations in any sort of matter..?

Kiran Kumar (Lawyer)     03 January 2009

apart from all the technical reasons...i must add one thing that, its been more than 60 years after independence we have not been able to accept as a National Language....look at the Chinese, they would even write the ingredients and price of a product in chinese language........but we prefer English......more than half a century of independent India, we dont have a common language.


isn't it a matter of Shame?

amresh choudhary (M.Sc. (Maths) MBA (LLB)-DELHI UNI)     03 January 2009

Everyone should accept HINDI as National language,





if any person doesn't understand National language then


he should debarred form any moral values of being Indian citizen !!!!

Shree. ( Advocate.)     03 January 2009

Dear Amresh chowdhary,


    Hindi is not national language of India.I found many people in India think that hindi is our national language. even some school books also contain that hindi is our national language but it is not the truth.



The truth is that there is no national language of india.

hindi in devnagari script and english are official languages of india but, hindi is not our national language.



Neither the Constitution of India nor Indian law specifies a National language. Article 343 of the constitution specifies that the official language of the Union shall be Hindi in Devanagari script. Article 354 specifies that the legislature of a State may by law adopt any one or more of the languages in use in the State or Hindi as the Language or Languages to be used for all or any of the official purposes of that State.[3] Section 8 of The Official Languages Act of 1963 (as amended in 1967) empowers the Union Government to make rules regarding the languages which may be used for the official purposes of the Union, for transaction of business in Parliament, and for communication between the Union Government and the states.[4] Section 3 of G.S.R. 1053, titled "Rules, 1976 (As Amended, 1987)" specifies that communications from a Central (Union) Government office to a State or a Union Territory in shall, save in exceptional cases (Region "A") or shall ordinarily (Region "B"), be in Hindi, and if any communication is issued to any of them in English it shall be accompanied by a Hindi translation thereof.


 Refer the below Link :

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Official_languages_of_India


 What is the reason for chosing Hindi as the communication meduim ? Many south Indian's donot able to understand Hindi. Especially Tamil Nadu state is not promoting Hindi Language even as a subject in school level ever since. It is a difficult issue to decide which language to be considered as our national language since we have variety of languages in india.


If we study overall india including remote villages also you will definitely find any person knowing at least one word of English. We have strong influence on us of English. In our day  today life we use English & even for many of the words we don't know translation in local language. Local language is our heritage but we need to think globally. break the boundries of state & country. English is the most public speaking language in the world. Let's accept this fact. Even children in nursery knows English. We all use English as official language. So what we are waiting for. accept English as National language & lets lead the world together.











Manish Singh (Advocate)     04 January 2009

yes, Shree is absolutely correct. we dont have any official national language since its not practically possible due to large pool of languages across india. 

RAKHI BUDHIRAJA ADVOCATE (LAWYER AT BUDHIRAJA & ASSOCIATES SUPREME COURT OF INDIA)     08 January 2009

I do agree with Shree & Manish Singh

Manish Singh (Advocate)     29 January 2009

i m sorry to say that my earlier opinion didnt prove to be right as we have an official language called "HIndi"

Article 343 (1) of the Constitution provides that Hindi in Devanagari script shall be the Official Language of the Union. Article 343(2) also provided for continuing the use of English in official work of the Union for a period of 15 years (i.e., up to 25January 1965) from the date of commencement of the Constitution.


Article 343(3) empowered the Parliament to provide by law for continued use of English for official purposes even after 25 January 1965. Accordingly, section 3(2) of the Official Languages Act, 1963 (amended in 1967) provides for continuing the use of Englishin official work even after 25 January 1965. The Act also lays down that both Hindi and English shall compulsorily be used for certain specified purposes such as Resolutions, General Orders, Rules, Notifications, Administrative and other Reports, Press Communiqués; Administrative and other Reports and Official Papers to be laid before a House or the Houses of Parliament; Contracts, Agreements, Licences, Permits, Tender Notices and Forms of Tender, etc.


In 1976, Official Language Rules were framed under the provisions of section 3(4) of the Official Languages Act, 1963. Its salient features are as under: (i) These Rules apply to all Central Government Offices, including any office of a Commission, Committee or Tribunal appointed by the Central Government and Corporation or Company owned or controlled by it. (ii) Communications from a Central Government Office to State/Union Territories or to any person in Region “A”comprising the States of Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, MadhyaPradesh, Chhattisgarh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Rajasthan, Haryana and Union Territories of Andaman and Nicobar Islands and Delhi, shall be in Hindi. (iii) Communications from a Central Government Office to States/Union Territories in Region “B” comprising the States of Punjab, Gujarat, Maharashtra and the Union Territory of Chandigarh, shall ordinarily be in Hindi. However if any communication to any person in Region “B” is issued in English it shall be accompanied by a Hindi Translation thereof. (iv) Communications from a Central Government Office to a State Government Office in region ‘C’, comprising all other States and Union Territories not included in region ‘A’ and ‘B’, or to any office (not being a Central Government Office) or person shall be in English. (v) Communications between Central Government offices and from Central Government Offices to the Offices of the State Governments/ Union Territories and individuals, etc., will be in Hindi in such proportions as may be determined from time to time. (vi) All Manuals, Codes and other Procedural literature relating to Central Government Offices are required to be prepared both in Hindi and English. All Forms, Headings of Registers, Name Plates, Notice Boards and various items of stationery, etc., are also required to be in Hindi and English. (vii) It shall be the responsibility of the officer signing the documents specified in section 3(3) of the Act to ensure that these are issued both in Hindi and English. (viii) Shall be the responsibility of the administrative head of each Central Government Office to ensure that the provisions of the Act, the Rules and directions issued under Sub-Rule-(2) are properly complied with and to devise suitable and effective check points for this purpose.



OFFICIAL LANGUAGE—CONSTITUTIONAL/STATUTORY


PROVISIONS


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