The Haryana Assembly on Wednesday passed a Bill making use of Hindi must in working of subordinate courts & tribunals in the state.
The assembly in the evening passed the Haryana Official Language (Amendment) Bill, 2020 to amend the Haryana Official Language Act, 1969.
As per the Bill, which was introduced by Education minister Kanwar Pal, the Haryana Official Language Act, 1969 was passed by the state legislature to provide for adoption of Hindi as the language to be used for official purposes of Haryana.
The Act doesn't make any specific mention about use of Hindi in courts & tribunals subordinate to the High Court of Punjab & Haryana, it states.
Before the Bill was passed, there was a lengthy discussion on it as senior Congress leader B B Batra raised concern, saying the HC Chief Justice should have been consulted before the Bill was brought.
"I amn't against Hindi, let me make it clear. But my question is why does the state govt want to impose it in subordinate courts. The govt should have consulted the HC Chief Justice. Had they brought the Bill in the next session, we will have no objection. All proceedings in Hindi in subordinate courts will lead to complications," said the Rohtak MLA.
The Bill states that in all the civil courts & criminal courts in Haryana subordinate to the HC of Punjab & Haryana, all revenue courts & rent tribunals or any other court or tribunal constituted by the state govt, work shall be done in Hindi language.
Responding to concerns raised by the Congress member, CM Manohar Lal Khattar said this Bill has been introduced after carefully considering all aspects. He said it will facilitate the common people to a great extent.
"We have restricted this to subordinate courts, district courts. Some states have made use of Hindi in their HCs too. As far as implementing Hindi in HC work too, the Haryana governor has on the state govt's request sent his recommendation to the president for his assent for directing HC under Article 348 (2) to use Hindi," said Khattar in the House.
As per the Bill, Haryana was carved out from the erstwhile state of Punjab in 1966 on linguistic basis as Hindi is the predominantly spoken language in the area. In 1969, as per the provision of section 3 of the Haryana Official Language Act, Hindi was declared the official language of Haryana.
The Haryana govt had also received a demand letter signed by 78 MLAs of Haryana, advocate general of Haryana & hundreds of advocates, wherein they have expressed their interest to get Hindi language authorised for use in the courts so that the citizens of Haryana can understand the entire justice process in their own language & can easily put their views before the courts, the Bill said.
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