The Supreme Court on Thursday marked the 50th anniversary of the Kesavananda Bharti judgement by releasing a video dedicated to the historic 1973 Fundamental Rights case in 10 languages.
Making the announcement, Chief Justice of India (CJI) DY Chandrachud said that the video of the landmark verdict was now available in 10 Indian languages on the Supreme Court’s website.
Stressing on the importance of breaking down language barriers to make the work of the court accessible to a wider section of society, the CJI said that the video was available in English, Hindi, Telugu, Tamil, Odia, Malayalam, Gujarati, Kannada, Bengali, Assamese and Marathi.
He said the initiative was part of the Apex Court’s ongoing efforts to translate judgements into various Indian languages, with 20,000 verdicts already uploaded on the electronic version of the Supreme Court Reports (eSCR).
Talking about the video, the CJI said it provided the viewers with details of the case background, key legal issues involved, the judges who presided over the bench, the advocates who appeared in the case, arguments made and the conclusions reached.
Appreciating the initiative, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta said that this would bring awareness to people who were familiar with the Keshavananda Bharti judgement, but unaware of the monumental importance behiind it.
Highlighting its impact on students, particularly those in less resourceful college, the CJI said that students for instance, who were not in highly resourced colleges couldn’t even access Judgements. Now a student who wanted to read a judgment in eSCR in Hindi can…now they have the same free text facility in Hindi as in English.
The Solicitor General added that India must be the first country to start this. The CJI Chandrachud replied that no other country has done this. He said he was talking to other Chief Justices who had come at the NALSA event. They were also saying that they’ll do this in their jurisdictions, he added.