Bombay High Court Begins Posting Judgments In Its Vernacular Language

The Bombay High Court on Wednesday started uploading its judgments in its vernacular language i.e., Marathi on its website.

On the High Court website, a distinct and dedicated part has been made accessible for citizens to check such Marathi-translated judgements.

These judgements can be accessed on the website’s home page under the section “Nivadak Nirnay” (selected judgements).

Three such judgements issued on February 20 have so far been uploaded.

One was issued by a division bench of Justices Dhiraj Singh Thakur and Kamal Khata, another by Justices Dhiraj Singh Thakur and Abhay Ahuja, and the last by Justices Ajay Gadkari and Prakash Naik.

While the two judgments issued by the bench led by Justice Thakur concern tax matters, the order issued by Justice Gadkari’s panel concerns a preventative detention case.

The translated versions have been accompanied by a clarification that they can only be used to assist litigants in understanding the judgement in their “mother tongue” and cannot be utilised for any other purpose such as execution or enforcement of court instructions, citations, and so on.

It was also stated that English will remain the official language for court proceedings.

On January 25, Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud inaugurated a new facility for interpreting Supreme Court rulings into regional languages. Thus far, over 2,900 decisions have been translated into several regional languages, including Marathi.

Recently, the Kerala High Court has begun publishing its decisions in Malayalam, the state’s vernacular language.