Marathi in courts still a dream

State Law Minister Leeladhar Dake had assured that he would expedite the process of introducing Marathi. But apart from exchanging a few documents, ministerial pronouncements and organising seminars, very little has been accomplished in the past two years to make this proposal a working reality.

The reason for this delay is a lack of focused effort, which brings the government’s seriousness on the issue into question.

Marathi cannot become the court language unless the state government presses for a constitutional amendment. As per Article 348 of the Constitution, High Court proceedings have to be conducted in English. Any other language can be introduced only when the state governor, after obtaining the President’s consent, makes a formal announcement to that effect. Till date, no such process has been initiated.

Therefore, the legal community is quite sceptical of the government’s talk of Maimarathi. Advocate Rajan Kochar feels that the government is just making “politically correct” statements “without any serious intention”. Justice Dharmadhikari, a retired judge, speaks of “lack of political will in the introduction of Marathi. They talk of having a participatory judiciary. But have they started a single Marathi-medium law college?”The state government has often reiterated that Marathi should be introduced at least up to the district level. In fact, the Civil Procedure Code (CPC) and Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) provide for proceedings in the state or regional language. But unlike in other states, Maharashtra’s notification for the use of Marathi in the lower level judiciary contains many exceptions, which extend the scope for the usage of English even in district and metropolitan courts. This greatly inconveniences litigants, who may be unable to follow deliberations, and are forced to depend entirely on their lawyers. Advocate Kochar had even filed a writ petition challenging these `exceptions’, but the petition was not admitted. Many agitations were held in the past demanding that Marathi be made a court language. The Bar Council of Maharashtra and Goa passed resolutions in 1995 and 1996 “to introduce Marathi in trial courts as early as possible.” The Thane District Bar Association had pressed for the same point. Some of the advocates had even held a day-long dharna . The association’s former president M Patkar said a fellow-advocate, Shantaram Datar, had moved the court to make a policy decison on this issue. For those conversant in the language, the introduction of Marathi will be welcomed. It will simplify legal formalities, and increase the likelihood of litigants representing their own cases.

Also, the translation of legal documents is proving to be very expensive. Many clients say they have spend up to Rs 5,000 procuring English translations of the annexures. Arranging for translations end up being more cumbersome than the actual case. While, on the one hand, the government, advocates and litigants stress the importance of Marathi, the trial courts in Maharashtra do not have the necessary infrastructure to facilitate its use. “The machinery for granting justice in Marathi is missing. Leave alone draughtsmen and interpreters, the courts do not even have typewriters, computers and stenographers adapted to Marathi. Therefore, the government has to start at the most basic level,” says retired Justice Dharmadhikari.No wonder then that an order delivered in Marathi by a district judge hit the national headlines.