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The Patna High Court consisting of a full bench held that a writ petition or a Tax Reference can be filed in Hindi if it is accompanied by an authentic English translation. A notification was issued in 1972 which allowed the use of an alternative language i.e Hindi, in the High Court for the purposes of arguments in civil and criminal cases before the Patna High Court.Secondly, for the submission of affidavits with an application. However, the said notification put an additional clause which said that English will be continued to be used for cases under Article 226 and 227 of the Indian Constitution and Tax Reference.
This came up when a writ petition in Hindi was being looked upon for the issuance of the writ of habeas corpus. The Hon’ble Court came across a judgement from a coordinate bench in the case of Binay Kumar Singh vs. Bihar State Electricity Board, which had held that writ petitions in Hindi was allowed.
The bench consisting of Chief Justice Amreshwar Pratap Sahi, Justice Ashutosh Kumar and Justice Rajeev Ranjan Prasad, passed three judgements. The Hon’ble Chief Justice said that Hindi was allowed as the language for drafting a petition as long as an authentic version of the petition was present in English. Justice Prasad gave a different view that the petition should be in English only, and Justice Kumar said Hindi was also allowed. However, both Justice Prasad and Kumar added a post-script agreeing with the opinion of the Hon’ble Chief Justice.
The Hon’ble Chief Justice justified his judgement by giving two reasons. Firstly, that the Bar Council has rules which say that English is the medium to be used for teaching in law schools. Along with that, it was stated that there existed a huge portion of laws and documents in English, and for that purpose, while championing the need for Hindi, the importance of English cannot be neglected. The second reason was that the diversity of the country with a multitude of languages needed a common way of expression in Courts, which is English.
Lastly, most of the legal authoritative texts and journals in all branches of law are in English and hence English cannot be neglected. Hence, for the precedents that have to be set should be in a way that forms a substantial basis in the field of legal education, which will be easier in the common language of English.
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