President for judgement copies in regional language

CHENNAI:  President Ram Nath Kovind has stressed the need for simplification of legal rules and said a system could be designed to provide certified translated copies of the high court’s judgements in the local or regional languages.

Speaking at the special convocation of the Tamil Nadu Dr Ambedkar Law University here on Saturday, the President said, “Perhaps, a system could be evolved whereby certified translated copies of judgements are made available by the high courts in the local or regional languages.”

He stressed the need to enhance legal literacy, simplify rules and make it understandable to litigating parties in a language they know.

Kovind said legal education and the law universities played an important role in nation building. “As our nation, society and economy evolve, so does the legal profession. While litigation in the courtroom remains at the core of legal practice, a law graduate finds many avenues open to him or her that were simply not available to previous generations,” he said.

Over the years the understanding of law and its applications had become larger as well as sophisticated, he said. “The nuances of privacy and of individual choice; the deeper interrogation of the concept of rights and responsibilities; and the search for a happy balance between autonomy for innovation and regulation for the greater common good in fields such as biotechnology and communication technology are all examples,” he said.

The President also emphasised on the need to make the provision of justice speedier and affordable, which in turn placed a great responsibility on the lawyer community.

“While an advocate has a responsibility to the client, he or she also has duty to assist the court in delivery of justice,” the President said.

“Our legal system has a reputation for being expensive and prone to delays. There are some who tend to use and abuse the instrument of adjournments as a tactic to slow proceedings, rather than a response to a genuine emergency,” he said.

“This makes obtaining justice costly for the litigant. It would be a travesty of our republican ethic if a poor person did not get the same access to the law as a rich person. The legal profession must continue to address this collectively,” he remarked.

Kovind congratulated three eminent jurists — Justice Sathasivam, Justice Bobde and Justice Tahilramani — on being conferred LL.D. (Honoris Causa) degrees for their distinguished services to law and justice.

“I am told that this is the first time in the country that a university is conferring LL.D (Honoris Causa) degrees on three jurists on the same occasion,” Kovind said. IANS