Mumbai's legal eagles against Marathi in court

The Bar Council of Maharashtra and Goa passed a resolution stating Marathi and not English should be the official language in the Bombay High Court. The move was prompted by a demand made by the Thane District Advocates Association for the same. They say that since a majority of litigants speak only Marathi and that the lower courts also use Marathi, it is the ideal language for the High Court as well.

But not all Bombay High Court lawyers are happy with the proposal.

Says Nilanjana Shah, Advocate, Bombay High Court: "It should not be made mandatory. We have so manu litigants coming from different walks of life and who speak different languages. Plus we have so many foreign companies thar have a base in this city."

Aruna Savla, another advocate for the Bombay High Court, agrees with him.

"For decades, we have been used to arguing our cases in English. It will be very difficult, even for Marathi speaking lawyers to argue cases and convert legal terms into Marathi."

Some lawyers, like Rajendra Pawar, feel that having Marathi as a language is not practical as the High Court has judges coming from all over India as it is a transferable job. They will have problem with Marathi.

But a compromise is possible, thinks

advocate Arjun Kode.

"They cannot substitute English. But maybe they can have both languages simultaneously."

The Bar Council ,meanwhile, is also game for Marathi being made the second language.

Although it was the Bar Council of Maharashtra and Goa that proposed that Marathi be made the official language of the Bombay High Court, the legal eagles, clearly, beg to differ.