Outlines of legal language in india C.1

The importance of Legal Language in India is increasing day-by-day. It is so because language as the vehicle of law has not achieved a final shape and maturity in India. There has been and still is the language dilemma in Indian Justicing. The imperative of the participatory democracy with equality, social justice and human dignity is that laws are made in a language understandable by the people to whom they are directed and that disputes are adjudicated through courts again through the language spoken by the large majority of litigants. The reality is that our judicial system and the spirit of administration of justice is shaped on the basis of British legal system popularly known as Anglo-Saxon jurisprudence. The language of law has been latin-french oriented english. The latin maxims, words and phrases are life-blood of the legal language. The need of ours is to evolve our own indigenous legal system through the process of Indianisation of the judicial system. But, indianisation needs to be more than skin deep. The transition needs to be through, through a gradual process with retention of English demanded by the effectiveness of the system.

In devising law study in carly 1980s on 10+2+5 pattern the Bar Council of India introduced a separate course on Legal Language including Legal Writing independent of English. It required proficiency in Hindi or other regional language. It recommended that the course on Legal Language and Legal Writing may be offered in the regional language or in Hindi.