CONSUMER’S RIGHT TO GET MATTER PRINTED IN HINDI OFFICIAL LANGUAGE OR NATIONAL LANGUAGE

“No national language in India” ,says Gujrat High court “It is observed by the court that in India ,a majority of people have accepted Hindi as a national language and many speak Hindi and write in devnagari script but its not the national language ,the constitution only describes it as the official language”

An High court bench headed by Chief Justice S J  Mukhopadhyaya therefore refused to issue directions that packaged commodities must contain details about goods in Hindi

A public interest litigation was filed by one Suresh kachhadia in 2009 seeking mandamus to the centre as well as state Govt. to make it mandatory for the manufacturers of goods to print in Hindi.The petitioner’s contention was that consumers are entitled to know what they are consuming . It was argued that Hindi is their national language,directions should be given to publish all such details in Hindi. His counsel placed reliance on the deliberations in the constituent assembly in his argument Even the centre’s counsel referred to the standard of weight and measures rules and told the court that such declaration on packets should be either in Hindi or English .But the court asked whether there is any notification saying Hindi is India’s National language , its an official language of the country

This order was obviously an eye opener, yet a bitter truth that Hindi  is an Official language of the country .Not only Hindi ,there are total 18 official languages and Hindi is one of them After the constitution came into force ,one after another state raised their demand to give  their state language  the status of official language under VIII Schedule of the constitution  and it is how by now 18 languages are the official languages through number of amendments to the constitution as hereunder :

EIGHTH SCHEDULE
(Articles 344 (1) and 351)
Languages

1. Assamese.
2. Nepali.
3. Oriya.
4. Punjabi.
5. Sanskrit.
6. Sindhi.
7. Tamil.
8. Telugu.
9. Urdu.
10. Bengali.
11. Gujarati.
12. Hindi.
13. Kannada.
14. Kashmiri.
15. Konkani.
16. Malayalam.
17. Manipuri.
18.  Marathi.

Not only this, English still remains the main communication language in our every affair fully supported by constitutional provisions .The Act to the effect of bringing Hindi to its priority position was in fact proved promoting English. Article 343.of constitution of India specify  Official language of the Union.states as hereunder;

1.      The official language of the Union shall be Hindi in Devanagari script. The form of numerals to be used for the official purposes of the Union shall be the international form of Indian numerals.

2.      Notwithstanding anything in clause (1), for a period of fifteen years from the commencement of this Constitution, the English language shall continue to be used for all the official purposes of the Union for which it was being used immediately before such commencement: Provided that the President may, during the said period, by order authorise the use of the Hindi language in addition to the English language and of the Devanagari form of numerals in addition to the international form of Indian numerals for any of the official purposes of the Union.

Hence  the Official Languages Act, 1963 (amended in 1967)was passed in the tone of article 343 of our constitution  and it provides for continuing the use of English in official work even after 25 January 1965. The only place Hindi could get is that ,the Act  lays down that both Hindi and English shall compulsorily be used for certain specified purposes such as Resolutions, General Orders, Rules, Notifications, Administrative and other Reports, Press Communiqués; Administrative and other Reports and Official Papers to be laid before a House or the Houses of Parliament; Contracts, Agreements, Licences, Permits, Tender Notices and Forms of Tender, etc.

Section 3(3) reads as hereunder

            Hindi and the English both languages shall be used for-

1. Resolutions, general orders, rules, notifications, administrtative or other reports or press communiques issued or made by the Central Government or by a Ministry, Department or office thereof or by a corporation or company owned or controlled by the Central Government or by any office of such corporation or company;
2. Administrative and other reports and official papers laid before a House or the Houses of Parliament;
3. Contracts and agreements executed, and licences, permits, notices and forms of tender issued, by or on behalf of the Central Government or any Ministry, Department or office thereof or by a corporation or company owned or controlled by the Central Government .

In 1976, Official Language Rules were framed under the provisions of section 8(1) of the Official Languages Act, 1963. Its salient features are as under:

1. All Manuals, Codes and other Procedural literature relating to Central Government Offices are required to be prepared both in Hindi and English. All Forms, Headings of Registers, Name Plates, Notice Boards and various items of stationery, etc., are also required to be in Hindi and English;
2. It shall be the responsibility of the officer signing the documents specified in section 3(3) of the Act to ensure that these are issued both in Hindi and English

In fact in the above referred case ,counsel for the petitioner could not plead his case with the reference to the official Language  Rules 1976 which could have been of great help and an argument of Hindi as National language could not stand on strong footing

The fact of the day is that it is  nothing new when consumers at large face the language problems.Though Consumer Protection Act provide that consumers need not appoint advocates for their cases to be filed before the consumer forums but at times complainants do not understand the reply given by the other party which is a lengthy one running into number of pages in English.It is often requested by them to provide the same in Hindi but neither the other party bothers to get translation for them nor there is any provision which could compel the litigating parties to adopt Hindi as their language for their pleadings. Interestingly advocates try to prepare their pleadings as lengthy as possible by taking number of preliminary objections in order to impress upon their clients which are even not relevant to the context.Sometimes forums have taken initiative to help the consumers by requesting the party to provide Hindi version of the reply but here again such translation cannot be considered as authentic version because any document of  technical nature shall be considered authentic only when it is translated by Central Translation bureau ,Ministry of home affairs  and any legal document for its authentic version is to be translated by Law Commission Ministry of law and justice .It is an impossible situation which is beyond the reach of consumer   Further ,certain appeals are filed before the National commission from the states where official language is Hindi and all pleadings as well as orders are also in Hindi .For filing an appael in Delhi before National commission, all the documents are to be got translated into English first resulting into a lot of translation expenses to the consumer.The law relating to the language used in the courts is :

Article 345.of the constitution : Official language or languages of a State.-

Subject to the provisions of articles 346 and 347, the Legislature of a State may by law adopt any one or more of the languages in use in the State or Hindi as the language or languages to be used for all or any of the official purposes of that State:

Provided that, until the Legislature of the State otherwise provides by law, the English language shall continue to be used for those official purposes within the State for which it was being used immediately before the commencement of this Constitution

Regarding the language to be used in the Judgements provisions under the official languages act is specified under section 7 of the act Section 7. of official languages Act tells about Optional use of Hindi or other official language in Judgments, etc., of High Courts.

“As from the appointed day or any day thereafter, the Governor of a State may, with the previous consent of the President, authorised the use of Hindi or the official language of the State, in addition to the English language, for the purpose of any judgment, decree or order passed or made by the High court for that State and where any judgment, decree or order is passed or made in any such language (other than the English language), it shall be accompanied by a translation of the same in the English language issued under the authority of the High Court.”

By the above discussion ,it is ample clear that the language of the courts remains English until and unless special provisions are made by the particular state with the permission of the President.The notable thing is that the act passed for promotion of Hindi is called “Official Languages Act ”  and not “Official Language Act”because it promotes as many as 18 languages of the country  and Hindi is one out of them

 

 

Dr Prem Lata

Member Consumer Forum ,West Delhi

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