Daijiworld Media Network – Panaji

Panaji, Oct 21: Chief Justice of India (CJI) D Y Chandrachud announced that more Supreme Court judgments will be translated into Konkani, Marathi, and other Indian languages as part of efforts to make the judiciary more accessible to the public.

Speaking on the matter, CJI Chandrachud emphasized the importance of making court rulings available in regional languages, stating, "A crucial step towards democratizing access to justice is ensuring that our judgments and orders are accessible in all regional languages. I am pleased to inform you that the process of translating Supreme Court judgments into Konkani has already begun and must be expedited. I am confident that the Chief Justice of Bombay High Court will ensure that its judgments are also translated into a language that the people of the state can understand. We must ensure that the work we do as judges and lawyers is comprehensible to our citizens."

Chandrachud highlighted that over 37,000 Supreme Court judgments since Independence have already been translated into Hindi and are now being made available in other Indian languages.

Reacting to the announcement, Global Konknni Forum president Kennedy Afonso welcomed the initiative, saying, “This is a positive step by the Chief Justice of India, aimed at helping people easily access and understand judgments. However, if the translations are only in Konkani Devanagari script, certain sections of Goa’s population may not be able to read them. Therefore, it would be ideal to have translations in both Devanagari and Romi scripts to truly fulfill the purpose of this initiative.”