Need to develop law, legal education in vernacular languages: CJI [Read Speech]

NEW DELHI: Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud on Saturday emphasised at the need for developing law and legal education in vernacular and regional languages for the benefit of the common citizens.

"In many countries across the world, both legal education and legal proceedings are conducted in the regional language, ensuring that all citizens can not only access the legal system but also aspire to be lawyers and judges," he said.

The CJI said it is only when we teach core principles of law to our students efficiently while acquainting them with the local context and local legal terms, that we can create socially responsible lawyers in the future, who can truly understand the issues and concerns of the local community.

"I hope that all of us think about these issues more deeply," he said while speaking at convocation function at RMLNLU in Lucknow.

In his message of the students, he said remember, the law is not a static field as it evolves with society, reflecting its changes, and addressing new challenges.

"As judges, with our grey hair, we too continue to change and evolve, even when we are perhaps almost double your age. My companion judges and I were once tied to traditional modes of adjudication, relying on bulky paper files. However, courts today have embraced technology to increase access to justice and bring litigants closer to the courtroom. Similarly, we stay abreast of evolving areas of law that have significantly changed since our days as law students and lawyers, including issues involving artificial intelligence and technology-related disputes," he said.

"To remain true to our role as guardians of our transformative Constitution, we continue to learn and unlearn to keep up with ever-evolving social values," he added.

The CJI also shared his thoughts on how to law and legal education accessible to millions of Indian citizens.

He said the SC's research department carried out a survey of 81 Universities and colleges at his direction and found that local population feel constraints in understanding their rights and schemes related to those rights due to lack of their knowledge about English language.

Since in most of the Universities, legal education is imparted in English language, the students find it difficult to make local people comprehend legal procedures, he said.

The CJI said he wanted to reiterate that he did not wish to say that English should be removed but along with it, local and regional languages must be used in education.

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, Chief Justice of Allahabad High Court Justice Arun Bhansali, Vice Chancellor of the University Prof Amarpal Singh, Head of Department Law Prof Aditya Pratap Singh, UP Higher Education Minister Yogendra Upadhyay, Chief Secretary Manoj Kumar Singh and several judges of Allahabad High Court were present on the occasion.

[Read Speech]