Allow use of Tamil in HC: CM to Centre
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa on Sunday asked the Centre to authorise the use of Tamil as the language of the Madras High Court.
At a joint conference of chief ministers and chief justices in New Delhi, Jayalalithaa’s speech was read out by K P Munusamy, Tamil Nadu’s Minister for Law, Courts and Prisons. Stating that repeated requests from Tamil Nadu had been denied, her speech referred to communication received in January 2013 from the Department of Official Languages, Home Ministry, which indicated a full court of the Supreme Court had considered the state’s request at a meeting on October 11, 2012 and had, after due deliberations, reiterated its earlier resolutions adopted on May 7, 1997 and October 15, 1999 not to approve the proposal.
“If we are to take the administration of justice genuinely closer to the people, it is absolutely imperative that the local language is used in the High Court, as is already being done in the State Government and in the State Legislature,” read Jayalalithaa’s speech.
She also said her administration had taken the lead in addressing women’s security in the wake of the Delhi gang-rape, and come up with a 13-point plan.
The CM outlined measures her government had taken to improve infrastructure, recruitment for judicial posts, opening of new courts and promotion of alternate dispute redressal mechanism, which had successfully handled 78,291 cases in 2012. She also urged the Centre not to delay allocations promised for judicial schemes in TN.