NEW DELHI: As many as 300 judgments have been translated to vernacular languages so far. Among these are 153 judgments in Hindi, 36 judgments in Tamil, 10 in Punjabi, 22 in Marathi, 18 in Malyalam, 46 in Bangla, Telegu, Kannada and one in Urdu language so far.
A judgment has also been translated in Nepali language.
With an aim to make the Supreme Court judgments understandable in vernacular languages as well, the top court had last year began translating the daily orders and rullings into some languages.
Launched last July, the top court had started posting judgments in six regional languages — Assamese, Hindi, Kannada, Marathi, Odia and Telugu.
The translated languages were decided on the basis of number of requests coming to the SC from various states.
The translation is being done with the help of Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools developed in-house. The SC has shared the tools with 15 high courts for testing, advising them to use it as well.
While translated judgments are being uploaded on the apex court’s website, daily orders of court proceedings are provided to litigants and lawyers who request for it.
The idea is to facilitate access to justice for litigants and also reduce their dependence on lawyers. However, the translated versions are uploaded only a week later.
Priority in translation are being given to orders relating to litigants such as civil disputes, criminal matters, landlord-tenant disputes, matrimonial issues etc.
A top Court official said, “The need to have judgments in vernacular languages arose as litigants have been approaching the Supreme Court office asking for a copy of the final verdict in a language they can speak and read. Every litigant may not be an English-speaking individual.”