The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Proposal to make Tamil court language under study

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Oct 14, 2007
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Proposal to make Tamil court language under study

Special Correspondent

Minister lays stress on need to simplify laws

No need to invent new words for the purpose: Minister
Committee of lawyers to have monthly meetings

CHENNAI: The Tamil Nadu Government’s proposal to make Tamil a language of the High Court is being analysed by a team of experts in the Translation Bureau of the Centre, said Union Minister of State for Law K. Venkatapathy.

Presiding over a seminar on legal translation and law lexicon in Tamil, organised by a law and human rights journal, ‘Satta Kadir,’ here on Saturday, he said Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi was keen to complete all formalities expeditiously to make Tamil a language of the High Court during the present tenure of the Government.

Underlining the need to simplify laws and overcome difficulties in translating legislation into Tamil, he said the common man should know the intricacies of law. It was a shame to keep the law not understandable to a person for whom it was enacted, he said.

A committee of lawyers could be formed to have monthly meetings and discussions on the issue, he said, adding that there was no need to invent new words. “We can turn to our own literature to find equivalents to current legal terms.”

“Don’t damage existing usage”

S. Srikandaraja, a Sri Lankan-born Legal Tamil scholar from London, said the use of words unintelligible to the using public would not serve the purpose, adding that finding phrases equivalent to legal or alien terms should not result in damaging the existing usage.

In this context, he said there were about 25 per cent Tamil words in Sinhalese language.

While Tamil scholar Avvai Natarajan wanted every section of Tamil society to contribute its mite to the development of Tamil as a court language, M. Rajendran, Director of Tamil Development Department, said it must be considered as an effort against a war of cultural as well as societal oppression.

Senior advocate A. Thyagarajan said translation must be short and accurate. Otherwise, it would pose difficulties in a court of law. V.R.S. Sampath, editor-publisher, said bringing out more number of law journals and books in Tamil was the need of the hour.

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