Ensure Marathi usage in courts, HC asks State

Mumbai, Aug 30 (UNI) The Bombay High Court has directed the state government to take immediate steps to ensure the usage of Marathi language in all subordinate courts across Maharashtra.

In an order, during the hearing of a public interest litigation petition yesterday, a division bench comprising justices Jai Narayan Patel and Amjad Ahmed Sayed directed the state government to furnish a progress report within six weeks time, mentioning the steps taken in this regard.

Arguing on behalf of the state government, assistant government pleader Pradip Patil told the court that the state had already started working on it and begun the process of recruiting employees at various levels towards achieving the objective.

He said there were around 100 posts that had to be filled by the Law and Judiciary Deparment and the state had decided to allocate Rs 25 lakh for setting up the necessary infrastructure required for the use of Marathi in lower courts.

The direction was given during the hearing of the PIL filed by one Vasant Mistry, alleging that though state had decided that Marathi would be the second langauge in the lower courts, its implemation has not begun.

In 1998, the state government had declared that Marathi would be made the second langauge in all subordinate courts, but the same could not come to force due to vacancies in the posts of Marathi stenographers and lack of typewriters and law books in Marathi.

UNI