Call for legal Telugu lexicon
Published: 11th February 2013 10:41 AM | Last Updated: 11th February 2013 10:41 AM | A+A A-
The ability to defend oneself in a court of law will become easier if the local language is used, High Court chief justice Pinaki Chandra Ghose has said.
Speaking at a seminar on “Telugulo Nyayapalana”, jointly organised by the AP Official Language Commission and the AP Judicial Academy here on Sunday, he said the role of middlemen between clients and advocates too would be minimised if local language was used in courts. A legal lexicon in Telugu was the need of the hour, the chief justice said.
Official Language Commission chairman Mandali Buddha Prasad said there were orders to deliver judgments in Telugu but were not being followed.
Chief minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy assured that he would extend all help so that courts could deliver judgments in Telugu. “My aim is that Telugu should be heard and seen across the state,” he said.
In his opening remarks AP Judicial Academy president justice NV Ramana said, “Arguments in lower courts took place in Telugu as early as 1724. If arguments take place in the local language, it will be convenient both to the plaintiff and the defendant since most of the rural folk cannot understand English. The British respected our tradition and pronounced judgments in Telugu. Judgments were pronounced in Telugu as early as 1874. The use of English in courts grew only after 1950.”
As the state government issued orders in 1982 for implementation of Telugu in courts, the High Court wanted the state to provide basic amenities like shorthand writers and typewriters. But there was no response from the state, he said. The High Court requested the state government again in 2005 for amenities to deliver judgments in Telugu, justice Ramana said.
RESOLUTIONS: The seminar adopted four resolutions urging the state government to appoint a committee headed by a High Court judge to translate the laws into Telugu, appointment of shorthand writers, development of Telugu software for courts, training to advocates and judges in the use of Telugu and publication of a lexicon in Telugu of legal terminology.
