Indian lawyers, judges educated at Harvard-Oxford should keep their thoughts Indian to be humble: Law Minister Kiren Rijiju

Many good lawyers and judges in India, who are educated at foreign universities like Harvard and Oxford, think and speak in English but it is important that they remain grounded and be "Indian" in their thoughts, Union Law Minister Kiren Rijiju said on Tuesday. .He said that it is not proper for such English speaking lawyers to have "foreign thoughts".“There are many lawyers who think in English and speak in English. But if you have foreign languages and foreign thoughts, that is not right. You may have studied from any University - Harvard, Oxford. You can be a good lawyer and you have become a judge but one’s thoughts should be kept Indian so that you remain humble,” the Minister said. Interestingly, the incumbent Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud completed his Master's degree from Harvard University..He also expressed displeasure at "English-speaking lawyers" earning more fees in comparison to those who speak in vernacular languages. He cited a comment in a Delhi court about the payment of lawyers based on their command over English. Rijiju said that it is improper to ignore the fact that lawyers who speak in Indian languages could be more competent than a lawyer who speaks English well. “There are some lawyers in Supreme Court, irrespective of their legal knowledge, who get paid more because they speak good English. This is not right that you get paid more because you speak in good English. Think about it, there are lawyers who have a good command in Marathi, Hindi, but their fees would be lesser, because they cannot speak in English,” he said.He further opined that such a trend was not good for the nation and that the legal fraternity should give it a thought. .Rijiju hypothesized that this phenomenon was an effect of our courts preferring English over Indian languages. He, therefore, suggested the Supreme Court to consider using more regional languages while conducting court proceedings. “Why are we not able to use our own languages in Indian courts? Why can we not use Marathi in Maharashtra? We have also asked the Supreme Court that you start thinking in this direction; and in all High Courts as well… The State’s intention is very clear,” Rijiju said. He added that the country has technology by which whatever is stated by the judge could be instantly transcribed and translated..The Minister was speaking at a function organised by the Bar Council of Maharashtra & Goa in Mumbai for the distribution of e-filing units and facility centres to 384 bar associations of Maharashtra. Each unit consists of a computer, printer and scanner.This was for effective implementation of the direction of the Bombay High Court mandating e-filing. The Bar Council decided to distribute the units themselves due to the expenses involved in the infrastructure. .While addressing the event as the chief guest, Rijiju was asked a few questions by young lawyers from the audience. One such audience question was whether the executive was interfering with the judiciary. "The government did not undertake any activity to take away the independence of the judiciary or undermine the authority since the time Prime Minister Narendra Modi was elected," Rijiju responded.He went one step further and asked the concerned lawyer to also consider the interference of the judiciary in the work of the executive. “One cannot look at independence of judiciary in isolation. It is independence of judiciary, executive and legislature. The Constitution has demarcated powers of all the three organs and it is important that the organs stay within the ‘lakshman rekha’,” the Minister explained.