Pleadings cannot be in Hindi; Delhi High Court upholds Rule mandating filing of pleadings in English

The Delhi High Court has upheld the validity of the Delhi High Court Rule which mandates filing of pleadings before it in the English language..The judgment was passed by a Division Bench of Justice GS Sistani and Jyoti Singh in a petition seeking a declaration that the Delhi High Court Rules are ultra vires the Delhi Official Languages Act, 2003 to the extent that they allow only “English” as the language in which the pleadings can be filed in the High Court..The petition had thus sought a direction to permit the filing of pleadings/petitions in Hindi..The petitioner, DK Chopra, a senior citizen, had filed the petition in the Registry of the Court in the Hindi language. It was the petitioner’s claim that the Registry had refused to accept the petition on the ground that Hindi was not the Official Language of the High Court..“..after preparing the petition in Hindi, he has been running from pillar to post to have his petition cleared from the objections and to be placed before this Court for hearing..when he filed the petition, initially, it was not accepted and he had to mention the matter before Hon’ble the Chief Justice and although, the Registry has now accepted the filing of the petition, but the same has been placed under objections and even the exemption application is not being entertained.”, the Court recorded..The petitioner further submitted that as per the Delhi Government’s Official Languages Act, 2000 and the Central Government’s Official Languages Act, 1963, the Official Language of Delhi was Hindi. He also brought to notice the Eighth Schedule to the Constitution of India and stated that English was not even one of the 22 Official Languages..It was thus contended that the Delhi High Court Rules in Volume-V, Chapter-1, which prescribes that all pleadings have to be in English language, was violative of the Official Languages Act, 2003 as well as the freedom of speech and expression, as guaranteed under Article 19 of the Constitution of India..The respondent, Delhi High Court, on the other hand, relied on Article 348 of the Constitution of India to state that language in the High Court was “English” and accordingly the Delhi High Court Rules were framed..Since there was a mandate that all proceedings in the High Court should be in “English Language”, the petitioner could not be permitted to file a petition in Hindi, it was argued..After hearing the parties, the Court held that the Rule mandating filing of petitions in English language was in consonance with the Constitutional provisions. It observed that Delhi High Court Rules were framed in furtherance of the provisions of Article 348 of the Constitution of India..It stated,.“The contention of the petitioner that he should be permitted to file his pleadings in Hindi language or that the Delhi High Court Rules are violative of Delhi Official Languages Act, 2003, has no merit and has to be rejected. We do not find any substance in the argument that the Delhi High Court Rules are ultra vires the Constitution of India or the Delhi Official Languages Act, 2003.“.In view of the Constitutional mandate, the court thus opined that it was “unable to entertain the prayers” in the petition..Accordingly, the writ petition was dismissed..The petitioner appeared in-person..The High Court was represented by Advocate Amit Bansal with Aman Rewaria..[Read Judgement]