The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Panel to review use of Kannada in judiciary

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Monday, Aug 18, 2008
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Panel to review use of Kannada in judiciary

Special Correspondent

— Photo: V. Sreenivasa Murthy

Felicitation: (From left) Chairperson of Kannada Development Authority ‘Mukhyamantri’ Chandru; Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister S. Suresh Kumar; Chief Justice of Karnataka High Court Paul Daniel Dinakaran Premkumar; and Home Minister V.S. Acharya, at a function in Bangalore on Sunday.

Bangalore: A committee will be set up to review the use of Kannada in the judiciary, said Chief Justice of the Karnataka High Court Paul Daniel Dinakaran Premkumar.

He was responding to a suggestion made by ‘Mukhyamantri’ Chandru, Chairperson of Kannada Development Authority (KDA), at a programme on Sunday, in which 50 judges who have written judgments in Kannada were felicitated. The Chief Justice underlined the need to use regional language in judiciary to ensure that the litigants understand the process of law.

Kannada journals

Mr. Dinakaran said that though legal journals were being published in Kannada, the legal practitioners were rarely citing them in their arguments. He urged the legal community to make use of them extensively so that Kannada becomes part of the judicial procedure. He suggested that the Government could allocate funds to make Kannada journals available in all court libraries.

S. Suresh Kumar, Minister for Law and Parliamentary Affairs, said that the Government would consider publishing volumes of the best judgments written in Kannada so that it can serve as a model to judges. Mr. Chandru suggested bringing out a lexicon of judicial terms to help the judges write judgments in Kannada.

Border areas

Home Minister V.S. Acharya, who read out Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa’s speech in his absence, said that proposals given by Baragur Ramachandrappa, Vatal Nagaraj and Mukhyamantri Chandru, on developing border areas, would be implemented in phases. The Government is contemplating enforcement of Sarojini Committee recommendations to give priority to Kannadigas in employment, he added.

Speaking on behalf of the felicitated judges, H.S. Mittalkod, Presiding Officer of the Fast Track Court-I, Shimoga, said that he had written 1,500 judgments in 25 years because he had a “strong will and an obsession” to show that it could be done. S. Siddalingesh, Secretary, Department of Law, Judiciary and Human Rights, said that the judges writing judgments in Kannada faced problems such as shortage of typists and stenographers.

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