Plea in Madras HC against titles to three new criminal laws in Hindi and Sanskrit

Chennai: The Madras High Court on Wednesday directed the Union government to file its response to a petition, which sought to declare as ultra vires to the provisions of the Constitution, the Centre giving nomenclature in Hindi and Sanskrit languages for the three new criminal Acts that have come into effect from July 1.

The three acts are-- Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam and Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha.

A division bench comprising Acting Chief Justice R Mahadevan and Justice Mohamed Shafiq posted to July 23, further hearing of the Public Interest Litigation filed by advocate B Ramkumar Adityan, which also sought a direction to the Union government to take appropriate steps to provide nomenclature in English for the new three criminal laws.

In his PIL, Adityan submitted that the Union government has given titles in Hindi and Sanskrit languages to the three legislations.

There were 28 states and 8 Union Territories in the country. Only 9 states and 2 Union Territories' official language was Hindi, he added.

He said Hindi was the mother tongue for about 43.63 percent of the total population of India, whereas it was not the case with the remaining.

However, the Union government has given names in Hindi and Sanskrit languages to these important legislations. According to data from the 2011 census, only 3.93 lakh people speak Hindi in Tamil Nadu, he added.

He said the PIL was filed in the interest of public particularly advocates, law officers and Judicial Officers, who were not familiar with the Hindi and Sanskrit languages.

The nomenclature in Hindi and Sanskrit languages for these legislations would create confusion, ambiguity and difficulty for the non-Hindi and non-Sanskrit speakers. Moreover, the names provided for these Acts were hard to pronounce for the non-Hindi and non-Sanskrit speakers. Therefore, the titles in Hindi and Sanskrit violate the fundamental right, he contended.