SC Judgments in Regional Languages
The judgments delivered by the Supreme Court will now be translated into four languages —Hindi, Tamil, Gujarati and Odia — Chief Justice of India (CJI) Dhananjaya Y Chandrachud informed.
We must understand that the language which we use namely English, is a language which is not comprehensible, particularly in its legal avatar, to 99.9% of our citizens, said CJI.
How Lord William Bentinck transformed judicial functioning in India? · Bentinck was the governor-general of Bengal (1828–33) and of India (1833–35). · Under him, the four Circuit Courts were abolished and transferred the functions of the abolished court to the collectors under the supervision of the commissioner of revenue and circuit. · Sadar Diwani Adalat and Sadar Nizamat Adalat were established at Allahabad. · He made the Persian and a Vernacular language for the court proceeding in lower court and made English language as official language for Supreme Court proceeding. · During his reign, Law commission was set up by Macaulay which codified the Indian laws. On the basis of this commission, a civil Procedure Code of 1859, an Indian Penal Code of 1860, and a Criminal Procedure Code of 1861 were prepared. |
CJI pitches for judgements in regional languages
- Expert committee under Justice Abhay Oka: A committee has been formed, headed by SC Judge Abhay Oka, to translate the judgments into four languages. CJI also intends to appoint retired judicial officers, apart from translators, for verifying machine translation of the Supreme Court judgments.
- State-wide translations: It has a mission that every high court across the country should will have a committee of two judges, one of whom should be a judge who is drawn from the district judiciary “because of their sheer width of experience”.
- AI-based translation: CJI further said that they are also developing a software and setting up a team where machine learning for translation of the SC judgments will be used.
Why such move?
- English barrier: The use of obsolete, archaic or old English words which have passed from the English language but have been kept alive by their frequent use in the Legal profession.
- Excessive use of jargons: The use of Latin, and sometimes French, words, and phrases to express a rule, principle, doctrine, maximum, etc. which can be easily phrased in English
- Legal language complexities: The practice of assigning common English words a new, different, unusual and purely legal meaning or assigning these words some exclusive legal definitions.
- Attitude of legal professionals: The ridiculed tendency of legal professionals both lawyers and judges to write often long and complex sentences without any punctuation.
Why is English such prominent legal language in India?
- Better than legacy language: The language used in Courts in India has seen a transition over centuries with the shift from Urdu to Persian and Farsi scripts during the Mughal period which continued in subordinate courts even during the British Rule.
- Codified laws and legal system: The British introduced a codified system of law in India with English as the official language.
- Creating cohesiveness: Just like cases from all over the country come to the Supreme Court, judges and lawyers of the Supreme Court also come from all parts of India.
- Ease of legal education: Without the use of English, it would be impossible to discharge their duty. All judgments of the Supreme Court are also delivered in English.
Need for such reform
- Creating awareness: The judgements should be converted into other regional languages so that the masses can benefit and the true meaning of legal education can be achieved.
- Create law abiding citizens: Obscurity of law creates complexity. If law is comprehensible to the common man, it will have a positive impact.
- Removing language barriers: Masses in India has always been uncomfortable with English language despites its popularity in education system.
- Promoting multilingualism: Ever since the introduction of New Education Policy, the centre has been very active in promoting multilingualism across the country.
Various provisions for regional languages
- India Constitution: Article 348(1) provides that all proceedings in the Supreme Court and in every High Court shall be in English language until Parliament by law otherwise provides. Article 348 (2) provides that the Governor of the State may, with the previous consent of the President, authorize the use of the Hindi language or any other language used for any official purpose of the State.
- Official Language Act, 1963: The Act reiterates this and provides under Section 7 that the use of Hindi or official language of a State in addition to the English language may be authorized, with the consent of the President of India, by the Governor of the State for the purpose of judgments, decrees etc. made by the High Court for that State. No law has been made in this regard by the Parliament so far.
- Law Commission of India: The 18th Law Commission Report on “Non-Feasibility of Introduction of Hindi as Compulsory Language in the Supreme Court of India” (2008) has, recommended that the higher judiciary should not be subjected to any kind of even persuasive change in the present societal context. The Government has accepted the stand of the Commission.
- Demand from various States: The centre has received proposals from the Government of Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Chhattisgarh, West Bengal and Karnataka to permit use of Tamil, Gujarati, Hindi, Bengali and Kannada in the proceedings of their respective High Courts. The use of Hindi has been authorized long back in the proceedings as well in the judgments, decrees or orders in the High Courts of the States of Rajasthan, MP, UP and Bihar.
How can this be achieved?
- Encourage local languages: The need of the hour is to encourage local language in courts, which will not only increase the confidence of common citizens in the justice system, but they will feel more connected to it.
- Executive-judiciary liaison: The confluence of the judiciary and legislature will prepare the roadmap for an effective and time-bound judicial system in the country.
Way forward
- The language of law should be cleaned up so that any person of average intelligence can understand its meaning.
- The legal language can be simplified by using the following steps.
- It should be insisted that the laws written by the legislatures can be made understandable to average laymen as well as to the legal professional
- These laws must be written in non-technical terms
- Legislatures should use short sentences with adequate punctuation
- Use of Latin and French phrases should be abandoned
- Use of obsolete archaic English words should be abandoned and at last, the same meaning of words should be applied to those legal terms as the same meaning in common usage
Conclusion
- It is true that language acts as a barrier in the spread of Legal education however language barrier coupled with professional barrier acts as the real challenge.
Who are the Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PVTGs)?
The Union Budget 2023-24 has provided to launch the Pradhan Mantri PVTG (Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Group) Development Mission in order to saturate the PVTG families and habitations with basic facilities.
What is the budgetary announcement about?
- The Pradhan Mantri PVTG Mission will be launched as part of ‘Reaching The Last Mile’, one of the seven Saptarishi priorities enlisted in this year’s Budget.
- More details are awaited for this new.
Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PVTGs)
- There are certain tribal communities who have declining or stagnant population, low level of literacy, pre-agricultural level of technology and are economically backward.
- They generally inhabit remote localities having poor infrastructure and administrative support.
- These groups are among the most vulnerable section of our society as they are few in numbers, have not attained any significant level of social and economic development.
- 75 such groups have been identified and categorized as Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PVTGs).
Origin of the concept
- The Dhebar Commission (1960-1961) stated that within Scheduled Tribes there existed an inequality in the rate of development.
- During the fourth Five Year Plan a sub-category was created within Scheduled Tribes to identify groups that considered to be at a lower level of development.
- This was created based on the Dhebar Commission report and other studies.
- This sub-category was named “Primitive tribal group”.
Features of PVTGs
- The features of such a group include a:
- Pre-agricultural system of existence
- Practice of hunting and gathering
- Zero or negative population growth
- Extremely low level of literacy in comparison with other tribal groups
- Groups that satisfied any one of the criterion were considered as PTG.
- In 2006 the government of India proposed to rename “Primitive tribal group” as Particularly vulnerable tribal group”.
Follow on Public Offering
Adani Enterprises recently said it has decided not to go ahead with its ₹20,000-crore follow-on public offer (FPO) and will return the proceeds to investors.
About Follow on Public Offering:
- FPO is a follow up to the initial public offering.
- It is also known as a follow-on public offer which is the issuance of shares after the company has been listed on the stock exchange.
- In other words, an FPO is an additional issuance of shares while an IPO is simply the first issuance.
- Companies usually announce FPOs to raise equity or reduce debt.
Types Of FPO
- Diluted FPO:
- There is dilution in the ownership of existing shareholders.
- Here, the company decides to issue new shares to the public which increases the total number of shares outstanding.
- When there is an increase in the number of shares, the ownership percentage of existing shares decreases since newly issued shares will also represent a certain proportion of ownership in the company.
- Non-Diluted FPO:
- There is no dilution in ownership of existing shareholders because no new shares are issued.
- The shares which are offered to the public are shares that are held by non-public shareholders.
- Usually, these shareholders are Promoters, Directors of the company, or Pre-IPO investors.
Difference between Initial Public O vs FPO
- Meaning: IPO is the first issuance of shares by a company while an FPO is the issuance of shares by a company so they can raise additional capital after its IPO.
- Price: In an IPO, the price is either fixed or variable as a range, while in an FPO the price is dependent upon the number of shares as they increase or decrease and is market-driven.
- Share Capital: In an IPO the share capital increases because the company decides to issue fresh capital to the public for its listing.
- Value: IPOs are oftentimes more expensive to carry out than FPOs.
- The reason FPOs are cheaper is that the value of the company listing its shares is getting diluted further.
- Risk: IPOs are considered to be riskier than FPOs.
- Status of the company: A company that is unlisted issues an IPO while a company that is already listed issues an FPO.
Amrit Bharat Station Scheme
Recently, 15 railway stations under the Ambala Railway Division were selected to be developed under the Amrit Bharat Station Scheme.
- The Union Ministry of Railways launched Amrit Bharat Station Scheme in December 2022 to modernize over 1,000 small stations over the coming years.
Amrit Bharat Station Scheme
- About:
- The scheme envisages the development of stations on a continuous basis with a long-term vision.
- Aim:
- The scheme aims at preparation of Master Plans of the Railway stations and implementation of the Master Plan in phases to enhance the facilities.
- Key features for these proposed stations:
- provisions for roof top plazas,
- longer platforms,
- ballastless tracks,
- and 5G connectivity.
- Other Facilities Planned under this Scheme
- Smooth access by widening of roads, properly designed signages, dedicated pedestrian pathways, well planned parking areas, improved lighting.
- High level platforms(760-840 mm) shall be provided at all categories of stations.
- Provide good cafeteria/retail facilities.
- Space shall also be created for Executive Lounges and places for small business meetings.
- Drainage of platform areas.
- Ceremonial flags may be provided at appropriate space in the station.
- Special amenities for the disabled.
- Gradual shift to sustainable and environmentally friendly solutions as per availability of funds and condition of existing assets is considered.
- The scheme will subsume all previous redevelopment projects where work is yet to begin.
Reverse-flipping
Economic Survey 2022-23 states that Indian start-up companies are looking at ‘reverse flipping’.
What is Reverse-flipping
- Flipping is the process of transferring entire ownership of an Indian company to an overseas entity.
- It is generally accompanied by a transfer of all intellectual property and data owned by an Indian company.
- Reverse Flipping is the process of shifting the domicile of those companies back to India who flipped earlier.
- Companies reverse flip because of easy access to capital from private equity and venture capital, changes in rules regarding round-tripping, and the growing maturity of India’s capital market.
Why Companies flip?
- Flipping happens at the early stage of the startups, driven by commercial, taxation and personal preferences of founders and investors. Some companies decide to ‘flip’ because the major market of their product is offshore. Sometimes, investor preferences like access to incubators drive the companies to ‘flip’ as they insist on a particular domicile.
- For easy access to capital from private equity and venture capital, changes in rules regarding round-tripping, and the growing maturity of India’s capital market.