A full bench of the Bombay High Court will decide whether litigants have to provide English translations of Marathi documents attached to a petition. The case has been referred to a three-judge bench after two separate two-judge benches gave opposing judgments on the issue.
The full bench, presided over by Justice Bilal Nazki, on Friday appointed senior counsel Rafiq Dada as amicus curie (friend of court) in this case. Earlier, as per HC rules, a petitioner was allowed to submit Marathi annexures with his petition, along with an undertaking that he would provide English translations if the court so required.
However, in a petition filed in 2006, a two-judge bench of the HC struck down this rule on the grounds that it went against the provisions of the Constitution, which states that the language of high courts should be English.
Another two-judge bench of the HC took a contrary view, noting that courts are made for the public at large and for the redressal of their disputes. “It is also expected that the justice delivery system should be easily accessible to the citizens, and justice should be delivered at the lowest possible cost. Any citizen is better placed in expression in his own language.” Therefore, the matter has now been referred to a full bench. The hearing will be held on August 28.
In the present case, the HC registry refused to accept a petition, filed by Vinayak Kulkarni, unless English translations of all Marathi annexures attached to the petition were provided.
Kulkarni, who was willing to give an undertaking to provide English translations, has argued that non-acceptance of his petition because annexures are not translated, is contrary to provisions of the Constitution. According to him, Article 350 of the Constitution provides that every person is entitled to submit a representation for the redress of any grievance to any office or authority in any language used in the state.
Kulkarni has stated that sometimes translations require huge costs. Also, if a judge knows Marathi, then justice can be delivered by looking at the original Marathi documents.
