The Kerala High Court published two of its recent judgements in Malayalam, thereby becoming the first High Court in the country to publish judgements in a regional language. The judgements, passed by a division bench of Chief Justice S Manikumar and Justice Shaji P Chaly in January, were made available in Malayalam on the High Court’s website, thus creating the record.
Ever since Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud took office in November 2022, there has been a collective push from the executive and the judiciary towards publication of judgements of High Courts and the Supreme Court in regional languages.
At around the same time as these judgements were originally issued, the CJI had said that the process of releasing Supreme Court judgements in regional languages had begun. As a first step towards the same, 1,091 judgements of the top court were released in Odia, Garo, and other regional languages on Republic Day this year.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi too has been appreciative of the judiciary’s focus on making judgements more accessible to citizens who may not be well versed in English. “At a recent function, CJI Justice DY Chandrachud spoke of the need to work towards making SC judgements available in regional languages. He also suggested the use of technology for it. This is a laudatory thought, which will help many people, particularly youngsters,” the PM tweeted on January 22.