New Delhi: A public interest litigation (PIL) filed in the Madras high court questions the Hindi and Sanskrit names given to the three new criminal laws. The PIL also seeks to declare the three legislations as unconstitutional.
The PIL filed by advocate B. Ramkumar Adityan of Thoothukudi says that the three new laws– Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023, the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023, and the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam, 2023–which have replaced the the Indian Penal Code, the Code of Criminal Procedure, and the Indian Evidence Act, be renamed in English, reported The Hindu.
The PIL is expected to be listed for admission before the first Division Bench of Acting Chief Justice R. Mahadevan and Justice Mohammed Shaffiq.
The petitioner has also sought an injunction restraining the Union Home Ministry from implementing the three new criminal laws until the disposal of his plea for renaming them in English.
Petitioner Adityan has said that while there are 28 states and eight Union Territories in India, only nine states and two Union Territories had Hindi as the official language. The petitioner stated that only around 43.63 per cent population of the country spoke Hindi with the rest speaking other languages.
Adityan cited a figure from the 2011 census that said that only around 3.93 lakh people in Tamil Nadu could speak Hindi, and despite that, the Centre has chosen to name the three most important criminal laws in the country in Hindi and Sanskrit, reported The Hindu.
The petitioner added that the naming of the laws in Hindi would result in great difficulties for non-Hindi speaking people and also cited the fact that the official language of the Supreme Court and most High Courts was English, which helped to maintain consistency.
Adityan further added that naming the laws in Hindi and Sanskrit amounted to the violation of the rights of lawyers, law teachers, judicial officers and litigants, reported The Hindu
