Translation device will speed up Bangla verdicts in higher courts, Chief Justice Sinha says

Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha hopes the process to issue higher court verdicts in Bangla will start soon and said they are looking for an appropriate translation device.

His remarks on Tuesday came after he paid homage to the 1952 language martyrs at the Central Shaheed Minar in Dhaka.
 
The Bangladesh Supreme Court (High Court Division) Rules of 1973 stipulated that any petition with the top court would have to be in English.
 
It was later amended to ‘either in English or Bengali’, but most of the apex court’s documents are still done in English.
 

Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha (File Photo)

Speaking to the media on Tuesday, Chief Justice Sinha apologised for not introducing Bangla in the Supreme Court despite it being the official language in government offices.

"But we cannot have an excuse for not doing this. Despite our will, it has been not possible to issue verdicts in Bangla, but some of the justices are doing it now," he said.

The country's top judge said he has been trying to introduce appeals court verdicts in Bangla after taking office.

"We will immediately go for a device, if any, which converts verdicts, read out in English, to Bangla.

"We are looking whether such a device exists. We hope to introduce verdicts in Bangla soon," said Chief Justice Sinha.

The Bangladesh High Court has issued several orders over using Bengali as the official language in State and administrative matters as well as on license plates for vehicles, signboards and television commercials.

Former chief justices Muhammad Habibur Rahman and ABM Khairul Haque as well some High Court judges had written some verdicts in Bangla.

A 150-year old verdict, kept at the Supreme Court Museum, is written in Bangla on a paper with the top court’s logo in Persian.

  National Law Commission Chairman ABM Khairul Haque also expressed disappointment over the matter.

"Higher court verdicts should be written in Bangla for the sake of the people," he told reporters on Tuesday after paying homage at the Shaheed Minar.

A former chief justice, Haque said he was encouraged to write verdicts in Bangla after reading articles by another former chief justice Habibur Rahman.

"When I became the chief justice, I considered issuing verdicts in Bangla and did that. The majority people of the country do not understand verdicts in English, which creates a gap between them and the judiciary.

He said that almost 200 verdicts have been written in Bangla since 2007.