Three new Bills were tabled in Parliament recently. This article is not about the content of these Bills (the controversies on that will play out) but their names: the Indian Penal Code is now replaced by Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, the Code of Criminal Procedure by Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita and the Indian Evidence Act by the Bharatiya Sakshya Bill. That these are names unfamiliar to, and unpronounceable by, more than half the country’s citizens and an overwhelming majority of its legal practitioners, makes these Bills fail the first test of acceptability. Moreover, Article 348 of the Constitution states that the authoritative texts of all Acts passed by Parliament or State legislatures shall be in the English Language. The body of these new Bills is in the English language, but the title of the Bills being in Hindi goes against the embargo placed by the Article.
Language and the legal regime
The issue of language was hotly contested and debated in the Constituent Assembly and led to the adoption of various provisions in the Constitution as well as the Official Languages Act. The legal regime in place provides that English shall remain an official language until resolutions for the discontinuance of English as an official language are adopted by State Legislatures and by Parliament. That is a dim prospect when we aim to be a strong player in a globalised world.
