IMPORTANCE OF HINDI AND OTHER LANGUAGE IN INDIAN JUDICIAL SYSTEM
AUTHOR – NIDA PARVEEN* & ANUPRIYA YADAV**
* STUDENT AT AMITY UNIVERSITY, UTTAR PRADESH
** PROFESSOR AT AMITY UNIVERSITY, UTTAR PRADESH
BEST CITATION – NIDA PARVEEN & ANUPRIYA YADAV, IMPORTANCE OF HINDI AND OTHER LANGUAGE IN INDIAN JUDICIAL SYSTEM, INDIAN JOURNAL OF LEGAL REVIEW (IJLR), 6 (3) OF 2026, PG. 554-558, APIS – 3920 – 0001 & ISSN – 2583-2344.
Abstract
Being a multi lingual country, India should acknowledge the role of Hindi and other language as a vital aspect towards the Indian judicial system in the interest of equitable justice. Most of the high court as well as Supreme Court have English as its official according to the Indian constitution article 343: (1). This heavily depends on the use of English language as a cult to the people whose main mode of communication is their mother tongue. The use of English language in the Indian court is not only a cultural inheritance of the colonialism but also a practical need. The English was introduced to the Indian court through the permission of the court to be governed by the English common law in the colonial times. This was subsequently supported by the English Education Act ,1835 [1] and Wood’s Dispatch of 1854 [2] that put aside Hindi and Persian and other languages that were largely present as the official language in that period. It was further internalised in the legal form in the form of criminal and civil codes drafted in English like IPc and Crpc in the entire of India. But it was a practical need which time brought about, to close the gap in the language-geographies of India, and to make the way easy and facilitate uniformity and mobility across the borders of jurisdiction. Even when district subordinate and revenue court serves in regional language, litigating, pleading and studying the cases of Supreme court and high court is tiresome business to regional people which were done in English. Given that it is a practical need, it will be impractical to nullify it to an extinct level, although, efforts should be made intensively to overcome the language barrier, in terms of applying an artificial intelligence tool and translating the supreme court and high court verdicts in different Indian languages and through institutions. This will be central in enhancing the language accessibility, sound law studies.
Keyword:
English dominance, practical necessity, colonial legacy, wood’s dispatch, English education act, regional language.
[1] Thomas Babington Macaulay, Minute on Indian Education, 1835
[2] Charles Wood , 1st Viscount Halifax