CJI DY Chandrachud constitutes Committee headed by Justice AS Oka for translating Supreme Court judgments into regional languages

The Supreme Court has constituted a committee headed by Justice AS Oka for translation of top court's judgments into regional languages, Chief Justice of India (CJI) DY Chandrachud said on Tuesday..Access to justice cannot be meaningful unless the citizens are able to access and understand in a language which they speak and comprehend the judgments that we deliver whether in High Court or Supreme Court, the CJI underlined.Besides Justice Oka, the committee will have as its members:- Justice Suraj Govindaraj of Karnataka High Court;- Sharmistha from National Informatics Centre; - Mitesh Kapra from IIT Delhi; - Vivek Raghavan from Ek step foundation; - Supriya Shankaran from Agami. As the first step in this initiative, judgments will be translated into four languages - Hindi, Tamil, Gujarati and Odia."I have constituted a committee chaired by Justice AS Oka, a dynamic judge of the Supreme Court, and the first step taken is to ensure that the Supreme Court judgments will at least be translated in four languages; Hindi, Tamil, Gujarati and Oria," the CJI said.There is a software being developed by which machine learning will be used to translate Supreme Court judgments into various Indian languages, the CJI added.But machine learning still requires verification for which retired judicial officers will be employed by the top court, the CJI further said."So we are now tapping into the talent of the retired judicial officers who would be paid by the Supreme Court for the work which they can do even sitting at home and verify whether the translation has been done correctly," the CJI said..Interestingly, the CJI also elaborated on why such verification would be necessary."For instance we begin every judgement where we are making a civil appeal out of an SLP by saying 'Leave Granted'. If you were to translate that directly into Hindi it would say 'Avkash prapt ho gaya' (holiday granted). You don't want a citizen to be told in the first line of judgement ki 'Avkash prapt ho gaya'," the CJI said.He was speaking at the inauguration of Delhi High Court's Online e-Inspection Software.The CJI in his speech also said that a building committee accompanied by himself and two judges of the Supreme Court will visit the Delhi High Court on January 30 and examine the new courtrooms, the new parking lot and then try and replicate the same in the apex court.Earlier on January 21, the CJI had indicated that the next step for the Indian judiciary in an increasingly digitised world would be to make Supreme Court judgments available in all Indian languages, possibly with the help of Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools.Prime Minister Narendra Modi had lauded the same saying that the idea if implemented will help people, especially youngsters..[Read live coverage of event below]

CJI DY Chandrachud constitutes Committee headed by Justice AS Oka for translating Supreme Court judgments into regional languages

Prashant Jha

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