A lawyer has moved the Kerala High Court challenging the Hindi/Sanskrit names given to the recently passed Central laws.
The Central government had enacted the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, and Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam, which will replace the Code of Criminal Procedure, Indian Penal Code, and the Indian Evidence Act from July 1, 2024.
P.V. Jeevesh, the petitioner, argued that a majority of the members of the legal fraternity in south India were not conversant with Hindi and Sanskrit. The nomenclature in Hindi and Sanskrit for the laws would create confusion, ambiguity, and difficulty for the legal community of non-Hindi and non-Sanskrit speakers, he argued.
The Hindi and Sanskrit names given to the laws violated the constitutional provision that all the Bills introduced in legislative bodies and the Acts passed by them shall be in English. The legislative intent of the constitutional provision was to bridge linguistic barriers and promote unity and understanding among the diverse linguistic groups in the country, he argued.
The naming of the Acts was a classic case of linguistic imperialism and went against democratic values and principles of federalism, he contended.
