Use of Tamil in HC: Karuna seeks Centre's intervention

Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam president M Karunanidhi on Wednesday sought the Centre's intervention in making Tamil a language of the court in Madras high court.

Karunanidhi's plea comes days after reports of an advocate being denied permission by a high court judge to argue in Tamil saying it was not in consonance with the provisions of Constitution.

The 88-year-old leader, whose party is a key constituent in the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government at Centre, recalled the state Assembly had during DMK regime in 2006 passed a unanimous resolution for allowing use of Tamil with he himself handing over a copy of it to then President A P J Abdul Kalam.

However, the Ministry of Law and Justice had informed that it had taken up the matter with Supreme Court which was not in favour introducing Tamil for court proceedings, he said in a letter to party men.

"I had later written to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, then Home Minister Shivraj Patil and then Law Minister H R Bharadwaj saying Hindi was being used for court proceedings in Rajasthan, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh and that the long-time desire of Tamil people should be met by ensuring presidential consent" on the matter, he said.

Besides, then central ministers from Tamil Nadu including P Chidambaram, TR Baalu and A Raja had submitted a memorandum to the Prime Minister in this regard, he recalled adding a resolution was also passed in the 2010 World Classical Tamil conference held in Coimbatore.

Despite all this, Centre could not grant approval to the resolution passed in the state Assembly but still many cases were argued in the high court in Tamil with the court allowing it.

But in a recent incident, he recalled, a judge had denied permission for an advocate to argue in Tamil saying it was not in consonance with the provisions of Constitution following which advocates were protesting demanding that Tamil be made language of the court.

"I insist that Centre should intervene and get presidential approval (in this issue matter) with Supreme Court's consent," he said.