Local culture should be the basis of legal translations: Former Chief Justice

Mysore/Mysuru: “Mere translations of Laws to local languages will not bring nativity. Translations should be done according to local culture and history. We need to depend on others only when we have no better information,” opined Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) Chairman, former Chief Justice of Patna High Court and Executive Director, Committee of Indian Languages Justice L. Narasimha Reddy.

He was speaking after inaugurating the two-day workshop on “Kannadadalli Kanoonu Patyapustakagala Anuvada matu Baravanige,” organised jointly by the Department of Studies in Law, University of Mysore and Committee of Indian Languages at Educational Multi Media Research Centre (EMMRC) auditorium, Manasagangothri, in city recently.

Pointing out that marriage was a long term system in our culture, Narasimha Reddy said that ever since we incorporated foreign laws in our judicial system, divorces became easy and more frequent. “Had we incorporated laws which suits our culture, there was a possibility of things being different,” he added.

“By the use of Law in local languages, people move towards a life of better awareness and devoid of any problem. The Laws based on local languages will have the influence of local culture, whereas Laws borrowed from other places are found to have lacunae with respect to the sensitivities of local life and other matters of importance,” he added.

Observing that in English judicial system, individuals become rivals immediately after they go to Court, Reddy said that on the contrary, in the Indian System, solution to the problem is sought by bringing the warring persons to the negotiation table and arriving at a consensus.

University of Mysore Registrar V.R. Shylaja, who was the chief guest, said that the effective implementation of our laws should be based on the culture, language and the needs of the people to whom it is intended to serve.

Prof. P. Eshwar Bhat, former Vice-Chancellor of Karnataka State Law University (KSLU) Hubballi, delivered the keynote address. Chairman of Committee of Indian Languages Chamu Krishnashastry, All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) Board Chief Coordination Officer Dr. Buddha Chandrashekara, In-charge Vice-Chancellor of University of Mysore Prof. H. Rajashekar, Central  Institute of Indian Languages (CIIL) Mysuru Director Prof. Shailendra Kumar, Chairman and Dean of University of Mysore’s Department of Studies in Law Prof. T.R. Maruthi were present.

This post was published on February 15, 2023 7:40 pm