Chandigarh January 3: Haryana Cabinet which met under the Chairmanship of Chief Minister, Mr Manohar Lal here today approved the proposal of bringing an amendment of Haryana Official Language Act, 1969 to get Hindi language authorised as the language for the purposes of proceedings, any judgment, decree or orders passed or made by the Courts and Tribunals subordinate to High Court of Punjab and Haryana.

To spread the propagation of Hindi as the language of the people of the State, it is necessary that this language should be used in day to day work. The purpose of justice in a democracy is that the plaintiff should get justice quickly in his own language and should not remain speechless during the proceedings.

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 the official purposes of Haryana. The Act does not make any specific mention about use of Hindi in Courts and Tribunals subordinate to the High Court of Punjab and Haryana. The Punjab Official Language Act, 1967 provided that language in the State of Punjab shall be Punjabi. Punjab Official Language Act, 1967 was amended by Punjab Act No. 11 of 1969 in which Sections 3A and 3B were added providing that in all Civil Courts and Criminal Courts, subordinate to the High Court of Punjab and Haryana and all Revenue Courts and Tribunals, work shall done in Punjabi.

A similar amendment will be brought in the Haryana Official Language Act, 1969 to provide that work in all Courts, subordinate to the High Court and all Tribunals constituted by the State Government, work will be done in Hindi in Devnagri script. A sections 3A will be added in the Haryana Official Language Act, 1969 to provide that in all civil courts and criminal courts subordinate to the High Court of Punjab and Haryana, all revenue courts and rent tribunals or any other court or tribunal constituted by the State Government, work in such courts and tribunals including proceedings, any judgment, decree or orders passed, will be done in Hindi.

The Cabinet also decided that all requisite infrastructure including training of staff will be provided within six months to ensure smooth implementation of the proposed amendment.

The State Government has also received a demand letter signed by 78 MLAs of Haryana, Advocate General of Haryana and hundreds of advocates. The Chief Minister has also expressed his interest to get Hindi language authorized for use in the Courts so that the citizens of Haryana can understand the entire justice process in their own language and can easily put their views before the Courts.

Recently, in the Diamond Jubilee program of the Kerala High Court, the President Mr. Ramnath Kovind himself also emphasized that the Court decisions should be made available in the language of the plaintiff. The Indian language campaign, started by the advocates, intellectuals and jurists of India, is also working in this direction that work in Indian languages should be started in the Courts of India. Therefore, it was prudent to authorize the use of Hindi language for the purposes of proceedings, any judgment, decree or orders passed or made by the Courts and Tribunals subordinate to High Court of Punjab and Haryana.