Over 9000 of the 35000 Supreme Court judgments have been translated into regional languages: CJI Chandrachud

On Tuesday (15 August), the Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud said that over 9,000 judgments have been translated into regional languages so far. His statement comes immediately after Prime Minister Narendra Modi lauded the Supreme Court’s initiative to promote the use of regional languages in the delivery of Justice from the ramparts of Red Fort. PM Modi commended the move taken by the Apex Court to translate operative parts of its judgments into regional languages.

Highlighting the reference to PM Modi’s I-Day address, CJI Chandrachud said, “PM today in his Independence Day speech at Red Fort mentioned the efforts of the Supreme Court to translate the judgments in regional languages. Up to now, 9,423 judgments of the Supreme Court have been translated into regional languages, 8,977 in Hindi. We have covered so far Assamese, Bengali, Garo, Gujarati, Kannada, Khasi, Malayalam, Marathi, Nepali, Odia, Punjabi, Tamil, Telugu, and Urdu.” 

CJI emphasized that they would make all possible efforts so that all the 35,000 judgments which have been passed by the apex court since its birth are made available to Indians in every language. He stressed that without this the efforts to allow arguments in regional languages will become futile. 

CJI added, “Our effort is that all the 35,000 judgments of the SC, from its birth, should be available to our citizens in every language. This will facilitate the use of regional languages in our courts because what use is it to say you can argue in a regional language if the judgments are not in regional languages.”

Earlier, CJI Chandrachud expressed his concern that because the judgments are written in English, nearly 99.9 percent of citizens can’t comprehend them, especially in the legal form. Subsequently, he added that the Court will use artificial intelligence to translate English judgments into regional languages.

Back in 2019, the Supreme Court decided to provide its judgments in nine regional languages. The then President Ram Nath Kovind had acknowledged and hailed this move. 

Earlier in the day during his Independence Day address, PM Modi laid emphasis on the promotion of the mother tongue and stressed that the relevance of the mother tongue is increasing. 

He said, “I thank the Supreme Court. It has been said that now the operative part of the judgment will be translated into the language the litigant speaks. The relevance of mother tongue is increasing.” 

Acknowledging PM Modi’s words regarding Supreme Court’s initiative, CJI Chandrachud responded with a folded hand gesture.