‘High court can’t change language of use’

GANDHINAGAR - The Gujarat High Court Wednesday stated that it has no jurisdiction to interfere in the official language assigned to the high courts unless the governor of the state authorises it with the permission of the president.

A division bench of Chief Justice S.J. Mukhopadhaya and Justice Akil Kureshi refused to hear the plea of M. Kumar as his petition was not in English but in Hindi.

Kumar filed a petition before the high court, challenging Hemchandracharya North Gujarat University’s decision not to consider an examination paper written in Hindi.

The petitioner submitted that his petition be heard as Hindi is the national language.

The division bench, however, refused to hear his plea as it was in Hindi and directed him to get it translated to English.

The court stated that the high court itself does not have the jurisdiction to change the official language of the court.

It stated that any local language cannot be high court’s official language unless authorised by the state and the union.

It was argued that the court should consider the fact that the Gujarat government rule says that Gujarati and English were allowed as languages of official communication.

However, the chief justice disagreed and commented that Article 348 of the constitution states that the official language of communication in the Supreme Court and the high courts will be English unless authorised by the governor of a state with prior approval of the president.

He said since there was no such authorization from the governor, the state government’s rule is ultra vires of the constitution.

Citing the example of Tamil Nadu, Mukhopadhaya said: “They wanted to have their local language as official language of their high court, however, approval was not granted to them.”