After the adoption of Hindi in Devanagari script as the Official Language of the Union of India under article 344 of the Constitution of India, the Official Language Commission was appointed on the 7th June, 1955 under the Chairmanship of Shri B.G. Kher for the purpose of making recommendations to the President of India as to the progressive use of Hindi for the official purposes of the Union, restrictions on the use of English for all or any of the official purposes of the Union, the language to be used in the proceedings of the Supreme Court/High Courts, Bills, Acts, Ordinances, rules, regulations etc. and as to forms of numerals to be used for the purposes of the Union. This commission recommended in its report (at p.175) as under:
“The following preliminary appears to us to be prerequisite to the accomplishment of
a change over of
the linguistic medium in the field of law and legislations: -
(1) The preparation of a standard legal lexicon;
(2) Re-enactment of the Statute book in Hindi both in respect of Central legislation and in respect of state legislation.”
Accepting the recommendations of
the Official Language Commission, the Committee of Parliament on Official Language (1958)
in its report, at pages 28-29, recommended as
follows:
“Considering the complexity of the work, the committee considers that it would be
advisable to constitute a
standing Commission, consisting of legal experts representing the different national
languages of India, for the
proper planning and implementation of the entire programme relating to the preparation of
legal terminology and
glossaries and the translation of statutes in Hindi.”
The president considered the report of the Committee in exercise of powers conferred on him by clause (6) of article 344 of the Constitution, and thereafter a Presidential Order was issued on 27th April, 1960.
Para 13 of the Order contained the following directions :
“The Ministry of Law, may take action in the light of the suggestion of the Committee
to constitute a
Standing Commission or such other agency as may be considered appropriate, consisting of
legal experts for the proper planning and implementation of the entire work relating to
preparation of a standard legal terminology (for use, as far as possible, in all Indian
languages) and translation of Statutes in Hindi.”
In pursuance of the directive issued by the President on 27th April, 1960, the Ministry of Law constituted the Official Languages (Legislative) Commission. The terms of reference of the Commission were: --
(i) to prepare and publish a standard legal terminology for use, as far as possible, in all official languages;
(ii) to prepare authoritative texts in Hindi of all Central Acts and Ordinances and Regulations promulgated by the President;
(iii) to prepare authoritative texts in Hindi of all rules, regulations and orders made by the Central Government under any Central Act or any Ordinances or Regulation promulgated by the President;
(iv) to arrange for the translation of Central Acts, Ordinances and Regulations promulgated by the President in the respective official languages of the States and for the translation of all Acts passed and ordinances promulgated in any state into Hindi, if the texts of such Acts or ordinances are in languages other than Hindi;
(v) to perform such other duties as may be assigned to it by the Government of India from time to time
The commission commenced the task
of translation of Central Acts into Hindi and other languages. It also published a
compilation containing equivalents of technical legal terms in Hindi entitled “Legal
glossary” in 1970. It contained approximately 10,000 entries. The Commission
translated major Acts, such as Indian Penal Code, Indian Evidence Act, Indian Contract
Act, Civil Procedure Code, etc. in Hindi and published them as authoritative texts thereof
in Hindi under section 5(1)(a) of the Official Languages Act, 1963.
Later on, the Government decided to departmentalise this work and put it on a permanent footing. With this in view, the Commission was abolished and the Official Languages Wing was created as a part of the Legislative Department. All those functions, which were earlier assigned to the Commission, have been entrusted to the Official Languages Wing with effect from 1st October 1976.
Subsequently, some more functions were added, namely: -
(1) Translation in Hindi of deeds,
legal documents like contracts, agreements, leases, bonds, mortgages, etc.;
(2) Translation into Hindi of all
statutory notifications under section 3(3) of the Official Languages Act, 1963 ;
(3) Translation into Hindi of statutory
rules issued by the Governments of non-Hindi speaking States for being laid before
Parliament when such states are under President’s Rule;
(4) Translation into Hindi of all the
Parliament questions/answers, assurances, etc. relating to the Ministry of Law, Justice
and company affairs;
(5) Training in Legislative Drafting in
Hindi to officers from Hindi speaking States;
(6) Work relating to Co-ordinating
Committee of Hindi speaking States for ensuring effective co-ordination in the evolution
of uniform legal phraseology and model of standard clauses in Hindi and publication thereof ;
(7) Work relating to Hindi Salahkar
Samiti of the Ministry of Law, Justice and Company Affairs and providing Grants-in-aid to
voluntary organisations for promotion of Official Languages in the field of law;
(8) Publication of diglot editions of
Central Acts (with legislative history) and popularisation thereof;
(9) Preparation and maintenance of
India Code in Hindi (Bharat Sanhita) and also in diglot form ; and
(10) Publication of regional languages
versions of the Constitution of India and arranging functions for the release thereof.