Allowing use of Gujarati as additional language in court proceedings would have large-scale effect: Gujarat High Court

The Gujarat High Court on Wednesday said that it would look into a plea seeking Gujarati to be made an additional language for court proceedings [Rohit Jayantilal Patel v. State of Gujarat]..A Division Bench of Chief Justice Aravind Kumar and Justice Ashutosh J Shastri, however, refused to issue notice to the State government and said that it would consider the same on the next date of hearing."What you seek is going to have large scale effect and we will have to look into all the aspects. We will examine it," the Chief Justice remarked..The Bench was hearing a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by one Rohit Patel seeking a directive to the State government to implement the authorisation granted by the Governor to make Gujarati an additional language in court proceedings. Senior Advocate Asim Pandya, appearing for the petitioner, pointed out that the State Legislative Assembly had passed a resolution to make Gujarati an additional language in courts."This resolution passed by the Assembly members was forwarded to the Governor through state council of ministers. Thus, it is a will of the people of the State and also of India," Pandya pointed out..Pandya argued that since India is a democratic country and since the authorisation was passed by the Governor within the framework of the Constitution of India, there is no role to be played by the Supreme Court or the High Court, even on administrative side.Advocating for the use of "mother tongue," he said,"I rely on the observations of great persons like Swami Vivekananda, who have advocated use of mother language and were against the thrusting of English. They have spoken about the importance of mother language in overall development of a child."To this, CJ Kumar responded, "But all of this is of British era, Mr Pandya. Anyways, we will examine it.".Pandya further claimed that the President, the Governor, the Prime Minister and the Law Minister have also batted for the use of regional languages in court proceedings. He said,"Even the ex-Chief Justice of India NV Ramana had said it is high time for the High Courts to make use of the regional languages in court proceedings.".The matter will be next heard on December 1..Advocates Gaurav Vyas and Kumar Trivedi assisted Pandya.