R. Subbiah, J. - (1.) THIS writ petition is filed by way of public interest by Madras Bar Association, represented by its Secretary, for issuance of a Writ of Mandamus, directing respondents 1 and 2 to provide necessary funds and infrastructure for appointment of 300 Translators (Tamil to English) in the Madras High Court.
(2.) THE facts, which are necessary to make such a prayer, as culled out from the affidavit filed in support of the petition and counter filed by the respondents, are as follows: In the year 1956, the State of Tamil Nadu, passed the Madras Official Language Act, 1956 (Act No,39/56), which provides for the adoption of Tamil as the language to be used for the official purposes of the State of Madras. Section 2 of the said Act provides that the official language of the State of Madras shall be Tamil. Section 3 provides that English language shall continue to be used for all the official purposes of the State until the State Government issued necessary Notification under section 4 of the Act. THE State Government, in exercise of the powers conferred under section 4 of the said Act, issued a Notification in G.O.Ms.No,563 of 1969, Public (Tamil Development-I) dated 13.11.1969 officially for adopting Tamil language as the Court language in the Subordinate Courts with effect from 14.01.1970 and under the express terms of Notification, Tamil alone to be the language of the Subordinate Courts for recording evidence. As per section 4-B(1) of the Tamil Nadu Official Language Act, Tamil shall be the language of all the Civil Courts, Criminal Courts, subordinate to the High Court, Tribunals and Rent Control Courts for writing judgments, decrees and orders. Under Section 4-B(2) of the said Act, the State Government is empowered to notify the date or dates from which the provisions of Sub-section (1) of that Section shall come into force. In exercise of the said powers, the State Government issued necessary Notification in G.O.Ms.No.191, Law dated 13.11.1976 making Tamil as the language to all Criminal courts, subordinate to the High Court, for writing judgments and orders. THEreafter, the Government had issued a G.O.Ms.No,9, Law dated 18.01.1982 fixing the 1st day of February, 1982, as the date on which the provision of sub-section(1) of section 4-B of the Tamil Nadu Official Language Act shall come into force in respect of all the Civil Courts, Tribunals and Rent Control Courts, subordinate to the High Court. The constitutional validity of the provisions of the Tamil Nadu Official Language Act, 1956, has been upheld by a Full Bench of this Court on 21.04.1994 in W.P.Nos.1059, 1148, 1294 of 1982 and 4287 of 1984 and further the Full Bench upheld the introduction of Tamil as official language up to District level in the Subordinate judiciary, Tribunals and other Statutory authorities. So far as the High Court is concerned, as per Article 348(1)(a) of the Constitution of India, all the proceedings in the High Court are in English language. Moreover, in appeals, viz., documents/judgments received from the Subordinate Courts are in Tamil, then the same shall be translated into English by the translation department of this Court and the papers placed before the Honourable Judges, whether the Honourable Judges are familiar with Tamil or not. Tamil is not at all used as the language of the High Court.
(3.) SINCE the language of the subordinate courts, Tribunals and other authorities functioning under various statutes is Tamil, all orders, evidence and documentary in oral are invariably in Tamil. Orders VIII and IX of the Rules of the High Court Madras Appellate Side, 1965, enumerate the procedure that may be adopted in respect of the preparation of the records, (i) in appeals against original decrees of subordinate courts, and (ii) in proceedings (other than Original side Appeals and Appeals against original decrees of subordinate courts in suits) including references. As per sub-rule 3(iv) of the said Rules, the charges for the preparation of the records pointed out by the parties including the charges for translation if any, shall be paid by the parties within 25 days from the date of the receipt of the bill from the Registrar. Rule 5 of the said Rules prescribes that except as provided in Rule 35, it shall not be necessary to translate into English any papers in Tamil language. Papers in languages other than Tamil shall be translated into English. Where it is necessary to translate any paper into English, it shall be done through Court. Further, as per Rule 14 of the same Order, Practitioners shall be responsible for all the translation and other charges for the preparation of the record incurred on their behalf under these Rules. As per Rule 22 of the said Order, on the application of the appellant, the Registrar may grant permission to prepare the record privately subject to payment of comparison charges as prescribed. Similarly, as per Order IX Rule 6(ii) of the said Rules, 1965, if the records required by the party are in a language other than Tamil or English, it shall be translated into English through the Court and for that, the parties have to pay the charges prescribed by the Registry. All the records received from the lower courts in appeal or revision, as the case may be, are translated into English by this Registry. But, due to the limited staff, the system of translation by the Registry has not become possible. Since there are not sufficient translators, the members of the Bar themselves have spent their time in translating papers. Though a translating document or even the oral evidence of a witness is the job of a specialist one, who has trained himself in that field, the result may be that the translation may not be accurate if made by a busy practitioner. Under such circumstances, the writ petition is filed for the relief sought for as stated supra.;