Madras High Court Advocates Association challenges 1965 Union Cabinet decision to continue English as common language for Supreme Court and all High Courts

Subscribed with another email? Unlock these with Subscription Published - November 01, 2026 02:27 am IST - CHENNAI MHAA has contended that the bar imposed on use of regional languages in High Courts violates Articles 14 (right to equality), 19 (freedom of speech and expression) and 21 (right to life) of the Constitution. | Photo Credit: FILE PHOTO The Madras High Court Advocates Association (MHAA) has filed a public interest litigation petition in the High Court challenging the constitutional validity of an Union Cabinet Committee’s 1965 decision that English should continue as the common language for the Supreme Court and all High Courts in the country until it could be replaced with Hindi. MHAA said, a conference of Chief Justices of all High Courts in the country was held in the first week of March 1965 under the chairmanship of the then Chief Justice of India (CJI) P.B. The CJI’s letter to the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) stated that the conference had recommended that the Supreme Court and all High Courts should have a common language, English should continue to be such common language “until in due course Hindi becomes rich and ripe enough to take its place” and that regional languages should not be introduced as languages of High Courts. Subsequently, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) put up a note before the Cabinet Committee, constituted to consider different aspects of regional language policy, on May 17, 1965. The note read that there would be difficulty in elevating High Court judges to the Supreme Court and also in the appearance of lawyers before various High Courts and the Supreme Court if there was no common language for these courts. “One of the major unifying factors in the country is a unified judicial system with a common language and uniform way of functioning in High Courts. There can be little doubt that if regional languages were permitted to be used in the High Courts, we would be moving towards fragmentation of the judicial system, and it would not be possible to maintain for long the unitary character of the judicial system with the Supreme Court at the apex. An all-India bar of any sort cannot also continue to exist,” the note read. The MHA said, the Cabinet may accept the recommendation of the Chief Justices’ conference that the Supreme Court and all the High Courts in the country should have a common language and that English should continue to be used until Hindi could take its place. Venkatesan, too has filed a separate PIL petition seeking a declaration that the litigants have a right to file pleadings, advance oral arguments and receive judgements, orders and decrees in a language they understand.