HC to decide on translation of Marathi papers into English

A Full House of the Bombay High Court (a meeting of all the judges of the high court including Nagpur, Aurangabad and Goa benches) will take a decision on whether the translation of vernacular documents into English should be made compulsory.

A Full House of the Bombay High Court (a meeting of all the judges of the high court including Nagpur, Aurangabad and Goa benches) will take a decision on whether the translation of vernacular documents into English should be made compulsory. A three-judge bench of the high court, on Friday, opined in the ratio of 2:1 that the issue needs to be decided by the Full House.

HT Image

The bench consisting of Justice B.H. Marlapalle and Justice R.Y. Ganoo opined, that the Full House should take a decision on the issue whereas Justice S.C. Dharmadhikari observed that there was no need to refer the matter to a Full House.

In the end, the majority decision prevailed and the matter will now be put up before the Full House.

The judges have observed that some advocates argue in Marathi, which makes it difficult for judges who don’t understand the language.

In case of a division bench, the judge who understands Marathi has to explain the advocate’s argument to the other judge.

“At other times, we have noticed the original Marathi documents are more reliable than their translated English versions.” The three-judge bench, in their judgment said that as judges, their role is to deliver justice.

They said it is not their job to be ‘arrested in the cobwebs of semantic technicalities’, and therefore referred the decision to the Full House.

They said, “The Chief Justice and all the judges are requested to address the enormous difficulties that litigants face, with the goal of providing easy access to the justice delivery system, with affordable costs in mind.”