New Delhi: A Supreme Court bench led by Chief Justice of India, SA Bobde, on Monday disposed of a plea challenging the Haryana Official Language (Amendment) Act, 2020 making Hindi the official language for all courts in Haryana.
The three-judge bench asked the petitioners - a group of lawyers - to approach the Punjab and Haryana High court with their grievance against the law.
"There is nothing wrong in Hindi as the official language of subordinate courts in some states...80% of people don't understand court proceedings in English...even during the British rule, vernacular languages were used in subordinate courts," the Bench observed.
CJI Bobde, however, said that they would need clarification if the English language can not be used at all at subordinate courts in Haryana despite taking the respective court's permission.
The court was hearing a plea filed by advocates Sameer Jain, Sandeep Bajaj, Angad Sandhu, Suvigya Awasthi, and Anant Gupta contended that the Haryana Official Language (Amendment) Act of 2020 had unconstitutionally and arbitrarily imposed Hindi as the sole official language to be used in lower court across the state.
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Advocate Sameer Jain appearing for the petitioners contended before the court that Haryana has people settled from various parts of the country who may not be well versed with Hindi. He also argued that lawyers won't be able to practice their profession freely if only the Hindi language is allowed.
Through a notification dated May 11, 2020, the Haryana government had ordered that Hindi would be used in all the courts of Haryana including the tribunals. Section 3 of the Haryana Official Language(Amendment) Act,1969, was amended after the state cabinet had approved it.
