The Chief Justice said he didn’t know whether this proposal was tabled or not, however it had the signatures of “some mullahs, pandits and priests and of Dr Ambedkar himself”.
Chief Justice of India, Sharad Bobde on Wednesday said that Dr. BR Ambedkar had proposed Sanskrit as the official language of the country in a bid to resolve linguistic differences in the country, a plan that did not materialize. He made the statement at the inauguration of Maharashtra National Law University (MNLU)’s academic building in Nagpur. CM Uddhav Thackeray, Union Minister, and Nagpur MP Nitin Gadkari, and other senior members of the judiciary also attended the function, virtually. Supreme Court Judge, Justice Bhushan Gavai was appointed as the Chancellor of Nagpur NLU.
Speaking on the occasion of Ambedkar Jayanti, CJI Bobde said “Today morning, I was in a fix about which language should I deliver this speech. Today is the birth anniversary of Dr. Ambedkar which reminds me that the conflict between the language to be used while speaking and the language to be used during work is very old”.
Talking about the diverse representations in lower courts, the CJI said “We have High Courts with the official language as English and Hindi. Some want Tamil, some others want Telugu. I want to humbly submit that nobody is paying attention to this subject.”
Also Read: Ambedkar and his forgotten contributions to the great Indian election system
He said he didn’t know whether this proposal was tabled or not, however it had the signatures of “some mullahs, pandits and priests and of Dr Ambedkar himself”. The Chief Justice of India praised Ambedkar and his understanding of India’s socio-political issues along with the law.
The CJI congratulated the NLU for introducing a course in ‘Nyay shastra’, the ancient Indian jurisprudence in Sanskrit. “The Indian judiciary draws its jurisprudence from the Anglo-Saxon model which is based on Aristotelian and Persian logic. When I read about nyay shastra, I found that it is not a bit inferior to the Aristotelian system. I see no reason that we should forsake, overlook and not benefit from the genius of our ancestors,” said Justice Bobde.
As an independent media platform, we do not take advertisements from governments and corporate houses. It is you, our readers, who have supported us on our journey to do honest and unbiased journalism. Please contribute, so that we can continue to do the same in future.
