Naming new criminal laws in Hindi isn't constitutional, says PIL

Legal battle looms as advocate challenges Union govt's Hindi naming of criminal laws, citing constitutional breaches. The plea, awaiting court hearing, raises concerns over potential social disruptions and language imposition on a significant population segment, emphasizing the importance of maintaining English titles to preserve India's unity.

CHENNAI: An advocate has moved the Madras high court seeking to declare the action of the Union govt in naming the three new criminal laws in Hindi ultra vires of the Constitution and the provisions of the Official Language Act. Consequently, advocate B Ramkumar Adityan wanted the court to direct the Union govt to rename the three laws in English. The plea is likely to be taken up for hearing in the first week of July by the first bench headed by the Acting Chief Justice R Mahadevan. According to the petitioner, Article 348 prescribes that the authoritative texts of all parliamentary acts must be in English, and this includes the title of the Act. Hence, the enactment of three criminal laws with Hindi title is a law enacted by the Parliament beyond its authority or jurisdiction, he said. "The IPC and CrPC are placed in the concurrent list of the VII Schedule of the Constitution, which means that both the Parliament and state legislatures can legislate on these matters, tomorrow, each state could attempt to rename the Bills in their own local language. This may create political tensions," he said. The nomenclature in Hindi for the three important criminal Acts will impose an unknown language on a large section of Indian population (56.37%) much against their wish. The deliberate dropping of English titles is unprecedented, he added. "The nomenclature in Hindi will lead to a lot of practical problems in TN as most judges, advocates are not conversant with Hindi, and enforcing an unknown language on a large section of the population may disturb the common fabric of India and may result in social disturbances as well as law and order problems," he said.