Central govt. cannot expect everyone to know Hindi & English, remarked Madras High Court

ABOUT MADRAS HIGH COURT

• It is the second oldest HC of India established by the British in 1862 in Chennai, Tamil Nadu.

• Sir Arthur Collins was the first Chief Justice of Madras High Court. Justice PV Rajamannar was the first Indian Chief.

• Current Chief Justice of Madras High Court is Justice Amreshwar Pratap Sahi and current strength of bench of court is 57.

THE PIL ON REDUCING WILDLIFE ECOSYSTEM AND LANGUAGE OF NOTIFICATION

• Madras High Court was dealing with a PIL plea which was challenging the Centre government's move to reduce the size of the Kanyakumari Wild Life Sanctuary's eco-sensitive zone from 0-10 kms to 0-3 kms, because of which a notification was published in the official gazette in September 2020.

• The grievances in PIL came up from the notification which was drafted by Union Ministry of Environment, forest and climate in February, 2020 which invited public objections within 60 days.

• The petition said that due to the adverse circumstances created by Covid-19, the government cannot expect objections within 60 days because of little scope for public hearing.

• An additional ground raised in the petition was related to that of the notification which was issued only in Hindi and English, and not in the vernacular languages with which local people would be familiar.

COURT'S JUDGMENT

• The two-judges Bench of Justices N Kirubakaran and B Pugalendhi said that the Central government should take care of the importance of vernacular languages of all States.

• And since the notification was meant to be for public, it cannot expect everybody to know Hindi and English.

· The two-judges bench said that the notice was of such nature which concerned activities that would have impact on environment and the whole purpose of ‘public notification' would be defeated if it's not in local languages of state.

· The court stated that, “languages are medium of communication for people. Languages spoken and used by people of every State is equal before law. No language is superior and no language is inferior."

APPLICATION OF MoEFCC RULE

• The High Court of Madras looked into the note of the petitioner's submission that the issuance of the notice in only English and Hindi languages would not suffice and defy the MoEFCC's own rule.

• The petitioner in his plea had cited Rule 3 of a 2009 MoEFCC notification and an Official Memorandum, the MoEFCC, dated April 19, 2010.

• According to this rule a notice of public hearing as well as the Draft Environmental Impact Assessment Report must be advertised in one major national daily and in one regional daily, vernacular in the official State or regional language so that the local people may understand the essence of the notification and respond accordingly.

Comment down your views on whether the Centre was at fault for not publishing notification in vernacular language?