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Don’t know Hindi, will use old names of criminal laws: Madras HC judge
The Parliament recently decided to rename the key criminal laws — Indian Penal Code (IPC), Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), and the Indian Evidence Act in Hindi
Chennai: Following the Parliament’s recent decision to rename the key criminal laws — Indian Penal Code (IPC), Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), and the Indian Evidence Act in Hindi, justice N Anand Venkatesh of the Madras high court said, he will continue using the original English names since he doesn’t know Hindi.
The justice called on members of the Madras Bar Association on Tuesday, seeking their counsel on a question pertaining to the limitation period under Section 468 of the CrPC. The bar’s secretary S Thiruvengadam, advocate Mohammad Riyaz, and additional public prosecutor A Damodaran were among those present. While mentioning a provision under the newly named Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023, popularly known as CrPC, Damodaran struggled to pronounce the Hindi names and referred to it as the “new Act”.
Justice Venkatesh commented that it was clever to say “new Act” since he wasn’t able to pronounce the Hindi words, leading to laughter in the courtroom. He then remarked that even if the names change in Hindi, he would “continue using the old names. Because I don’t know that language,” the justice said.
In December last year, President Droupadi Murmu gave her assent to these changes which is expected to take effect this year. The IPC will be changed to Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, CrPC to Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita and the Indian Evidence Act to Bharatiya Sakshya.
In August last year, the Madras Bar Association passed a resolution for the English names to be retained for the three criminal laws
