State language still neglected in courts

Bangla, which is the state language of Bangladesh, is still neglected in courts even 58 years after the language movement of 1952 as only one of the High Court benches conducts its procedures, including the delivery of verdicts and orders, in Bangla and English continued to be used in proceedings in lower courts.
Although laws are now enacted in Bangla, after the enactment of the Bengali Language Introduction Act on March 8, 1987, the laws enacted before the passage of the act are still in English.
Only 97 out of the total 750 laws enacted before the enactment of the act have so far been translated into Bangla.
A High Court bench presided over by Justice ABM Khairul Haque, however, had conducted judicial functions in his court in Bangla from February 11, 2007.
No judicial functions, however, has been conducted in Bangla in the High Court after Justice ABM Khairul Haque’s elevation to the Appellate Division in the last year.
Although the delivery of verdicts in Bangla is not unprecedented in the Supreme Court, the bench conducts all judicial proceedings, including verdict delivery, in Bangla, breaking with the tradition of the Supreme Court which conducts judicial proceedings in English.
Former Chief Justice Habibur Rahman, Justice ARM Amirul Islam Chowdhury, Justice Kazi Ebadul Haque, Justice Hamidul Huq, Justice Moazzem Hossain and Justice M Abdul Quddus earlier delivered verdicts in Bangla in one or two cases, said a number of Supreme Court lawyers.
Justice Kazi Ebadul Haque and Justice Hamidul Huq delivered verdicts in two cases in Bangla on February 12, 1998.
They were in the same bench of the High Court and each of them delivered one of the two verdicts in Bangla.
No petition or application, however, has so far been made in Bangla in the Supreme Court.
A High Court bench of Justice MA Matin and Justice Abdul Hye on February 7, 2007 refused to accept an appeal in Bangla, said a lawyer who moved the case.
During the Ershad regime, the Bengali Language Introduction Act 1987 was enacted on March 8 of the year, making provisions for use of Bangla as the official language in all offices in accordance with Article 3 of the constitution which says: ‘The official language of the republic is Bangla.’
Section 4 of the act says, ‘The government may make rules for the purpose of this act by notification in the official gazette.’ But no rule has so far been made in this direction.
The law, however, has not been enforced in the Supreme Court which does not use Bangla as its official language for court proceedings.
Justice Muhammad Habibur Rahman in 1993, when he was chief justice, initiated a study to establish whether Bangla might be used as the official language of court proceedings in the Supreme Court.
Justice Naimuddin Ahmed, in his report on the issue he submitted to the chief justice the same year, said most judges of the Supreme Court had favoured using English as the language of the Supreme Court.
As the laws and the judicial system of the land are inherited from the English laws and legal system, and as the highest judiciary follows the common law system, which is in English, the language of the court should be English, they argued.
Bangla, however, has been used in proceedings in lower courts since the enactment of the 1987 act.
According to sources in the judiciary, English has also been used in court proceedings in the lower courts since 1991 when the High Court, in a verdict, observed English could also be used besides Bangla as the language of the court.
In 18 cases in different courts across the country, appeals were written in English instead of Bangla, and the courts rejected the appeals as they were not written in Bangla.
The appellants preferred an appeal with the High Court against the rejection of the appeals and a High Court bench of Justice ARM Amirul Islam Chowdhury and Justice AM Mahmudur Rahman delivered the verdict on November 28, 1991.
The Bengali Language Introduction Act does not have any clause overriding the Code of Criminal Procedure and the Code of Civil Procedure which provide that English can be used in court proceedings.
On this ground, the court observed in the verdict the act cannot have an overriding effect on the laws and English can also be used in the court proceedings.
The court also observed the definition of ‘official language’ does not include the language of the court.
The law minister, Shafique Ahmed, told New Age on Friday now almost in 80 per cent of the cases in lower courts, proceedings are conducted and verdicts delivered in Bangla.
‘The establishment of Bangla as the official language for court proceedings and verdict delivery completely depends on the mentality of the judges as the law is there for them to use Bangla in courts,’ he said.
The legal terms will be translated into Bangla with the help the Bangla Academy for court and lawyers to use Bangla in court proceedings, he said.
A project has been taken to translate the laws which are in English into Bangla and a number of the laws have already been translated, the law minister said.
‘A separate division has been set up in the ministry for legislative drafting and the legislative drafting division has been asked to translate the laws into Bangla with utmost urgency,’ he said.

Courtesy of NewAgebd