TN Assembly adopts resolution urging Centre to make Tamil as Official language in Madras High Court

Chennai, Sep 3 (UN) The Tamil Nadu Assembly on Thursday adopted an unanimous resolution urging the union government to recognise Tamil as the Official Langauge of the Madras High Court. Moving the resolution, Chief Minister C.Joseph Vijay said in the present context, where Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies have advanced to the extent that speech in Tamil could be simultaneously rendered and heard in English, this House feels that this matter need to be reconsidered in keeping with the current technological developments and unanimously urged the union Government to recognise Tamil as the principal language of the Madras High Court.

After a lengthy debate in which members of various parties spoke on it, Speaker JCD .Prabhakar said the resolution was adopted unanimously by voice vote. The Chief Minister said "The Constitution of India, while upholding the federal principle and recognising the multilingual and multicultural character of India, provides various legal avenues for the States to use their respective official languages. Under Section 2 of the Tamil Nadu Official Language Act, 1956, Tamil has been declared as the official language of the State of Tamil Nadu."

He pointed out that Sections 4-A and 4-B of the Tamil Nadu Official Language Act, legal recognition has been provided for recording evidence in Tamil and for issuing judgments, decrees and orders in Tamil in the civil and criminal courts, tribunals, rent courts and revenue courts functioning under the High Court. It said Article 348(2) of the Constitution of India provides a constitutional mechanism whereby the Governor of a State, with the previous consent of the President of India, may authorise the use of the official language of the State in the proceedings of the High Court.

Further, Section 7 of the Official Languages Act, 1963, provides for the use of the official language of a State, in addition to English, in judgments, decrees and orders of the High Court, subject to the authorisation of the Governor of the State with the previous consent of the President of India. Tamil, one of the world's ancient languages, possessing a grammatical and literary heritage spanning several millennia and continuing to be spoken as a living language even today, is spoken by approximately 9 crore people worldwide and about 8 crore people in India, Vijay said moving the resolution. In recognition of its antiquity, continuous literary tradition, inscriptions and historical evidence, Tamil was recognised as a Classical Language by the union Government on October 12, 2004.

The Tamil Nadu Assembly had already passed an unanimously resolution on Deember 6, 2006 seeking the use of Tamil in the High Court of Madras and forwarded the same to the union Government. In this regard, the union Law Minister stated in the Rajya Sabha on February 2, 2018 that the proposal of Tamil Nadu had been referred for the views of the Chief Justice of India and that, as per the letter dated October 16, 2012, the Full Court of the Supreme Court had not agreed to the proposal.

Observing that significant advancements have been made in legal Tamil, translation, e-Courts, technology-enabled translation and legal databases at present, Vijay said further, in the present context, where Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies have advanced to the extent that speech in Tamil can be simultaneously rendered and heard in English, this House feels that this matter need to be reconsidered in keeping with the current technological developments.

"Therefore, this House unanimously urges the union Government to recognise Tamil as the principal language of the High Court of Madras; Establish appropriate procedures for petitions, documents and arguments filed or presented in Tamil; create a framework under which all judgments, decrees and judicial orders delivered by the High Court are made available in Tamil; provide training in legal Tamil and translation for Hon'ble Judges, advocates and court personnel; and Take all necessary legal measures forthwith on the proposals to be forwarded by the Governor under Article 348(2) of the Constitution and Section 7 of the Official Languages Act, 1963", he said. Accordingly, the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly unanimously urges the union Government to take immediate and necessary action to facilitate the use of Tamil as the principal language of the High Court of Madras, the resolution said.