LUCKNOW: Batting for the need to teach law courses in regional languages and in simpler parlance, Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud, on Saturday, said it was imperative to use regional languages in legal proceedings to make the case understandable for general litigants. He said that the inability to explain the principles of law to the general public in simple terms was a shortcoming of the legal profession and legal education.Addressing budding lawyers at the Ram Manohar Lohia National Law University (RMLNLU) as the chief guest on the occasion of the convocation, the CJI took off on a poetic note by reciting a couplet of famous Urdu poet Asrarul Haq Majaz to throw light on the future of law graduates saying: “Jo abra yahan se uthega, vo saare jahan par barsega, har ju-e-ravan par barsega har koh-e-garan par barsega (The cloud of elixir that will emerge from here will rain everywhere, it will rain on every flowing water and on all the mountains). “These lines innovatively portray the future of the graduating students here,” he said.However, taking the discourse further on a serious note, the CJI said that he often discussed the ways to teach law in a simpler way with educationists. “If the fundamental and basic principles of law are not explained in simpler manner to general public then there is definitely some flaw in the legal profession and legal education,” he added.”When I came to Allahabad (Prayagraj) after spending my professional life as a judge of the Bombay High Court, it was culturally different for me. The proceedings in the Bombay High Court were conducted in English, though the record, especially, in criminal cases, was maintained in Marathi. In Allahabad High Court I found lawyers starting their arguments in Hindi quite efficiently. It made me realize the potential of lawyers to present their case efficiently even in their local language… I did not mean that we should not include English in the curriculum of legal education, but to include local languages too along with English,” he said.“In UP, I learnt what ‘taal’ and ‘talaiya’ means in local language. It was in UP, I saw lawyers have the potential to argue cases in Hindi with might,” said the CJI.
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