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CJI Chandrachud's folded hand gesture as PM Modi lauds Supreme Court for this move
PM Modi emphasized the importance of mother tongue in his Independence Day speech, praising the Supreme Court's move to provide judgments in regional languages.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday highlighted the importance of regional languages during his Independence Day speech from the ramparts of the iconic Red Fort. Referring to the recent move by the Supreme Court to provide judgments in regional languages, the prime minister said the significance of the mother tongue is increasing.
“I also thank the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court has said that the operative part of the judgments will be in one's mother tongue. The significance of the mother tongue is increasing,” PM Modi said.
Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud, who was among the guests at the Independence Day event, acknowledged the prime minister's remark with folded hands while other guests clapped.
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CJI Chandrachud has often stressed the need for courts to provide judgments in regional languages. In January, the CJI announced that the judgments delivered by the Supreme Court will be translated into four languages —Hindi, Tamil, Gujarati and Odia, saying translation of judgments in the regional languages will help in the access to justice for the citizens.
“A very important initiative which we have adopted recently is translation of judgments of the Supreme Court in regional languages. Because we must understand that the language which we use namely English, is a language which is not comprehensible, particularly in its legal avatar, to 99.9% of our citizens,” said the CJI.
Later at an event in Mumbai, Chandrachud said the “next step... is to provide translated copies of the judgments of the Supreme Court in every Indian language” and stressed the use of technology to help the courts reach out to citizens across India.
Prime Minister Modi had then lavished praise on the CJI for the “laudatory” suggestion.
“At a recent function, the honourable CJI Justice DY Chandrachud spoke of the need to work towards making Supreme Court judgments available in regional languages. He also suggested the use of technology for it. This is a laudatory thought, which will help many people, particularly youngsters,” the prime minister tweeted with a video excerpt of the CJI's speech.
