TN Assembly Urges Centre to Make Tamil Primary Language of Madras High Court

The Tamil Nadu legislative assembly on Thursday unanimously passed a resolution urging the central government to take necessary steps to make Tamil the primary language of proceedings, judgments, decrees, and orders in the Madras High Court.

Chief Minister C Joseph Vijay moved the resolution in the House following the conclusion of question hour. In his address, he stated that the state government is seeking legal action under Article 348(2) of the Constitution of India and Section 7 of the Official Languages Act, 1963, to enable the implementation of Tamil in the high court.

The resolution noted that Tamil has long served as the official language of the state under the provisions of the Tamil Nadu Official Language Act, 1956. It highlighted that Sections 4-A and 4-B of the 1956 Act already provide for the use of Tamil in recording evidence as well as in issuing judgments, decrees, and orders across subordinate courts, tribunals, and other judicial bodies functioning under the jurisdiction of the Madras High Court.

During the proceedings, the assembly recalled its past efforts on the issue, noting that a similar resolution was unanimously passed by the House on December 6, 2006, and subsequently forwarded to the central government. That previous attempt had stalled after the Union law minister informed the Rajya Sabha in 2018 that the proposal was forwarded to the Chief Justice of India, but the Supreme Court’s full court decided not to accept it.

Advocating for a reconsideration of the decision, the newly passed resolution pointed out that modern technological and institutional developments have drastically altered the landscape. It argued that significant advances in legal Tamil, modern translation services, digital courts, comprehensive legal databases, and artificial intelligence tools have significantly strengthened the practical case for adopting Tamil in high court proceedings.