Kerala HC becomes first to publish judgements in Malayalam

Kochi: The Kerala High Court has published two of its recent judgments in Malayalam thereby becoming the first High Court in the country to publish it in a regional language.

The judgments� passed by a division bench of Chief Justice S. Manikumar and Justice Shaji. P, Chaly in January, were made available in Malayalam on the High Court’s website, thus creating the record.

Ever since Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud took office in November 2022, there has been a collective push from the executive and the judiciary towards the publication of judgments of High Courts and the Supreme Court in regional languages.

At around the same time, as these judgments were originally issued, the CJI had said that the process of releasing Supreme Court judgments in regional languages had begun.

As a first step towards the same, 1,091 judgments of the top court were released in Odia, Garo, and other regional languages on Republic Day.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi too has been appreciative of the judiciary’s focus on making judgments more accessible to citizens who may not be well-versed in English.

“At a recent function, CJI Justice DY Chandrachud spoke of the need to work towards making SC judgments available in regional languages. He also suggested the use of technology for it. This is a laudatory thought, which will help many people, particularly youngsters,” the PM tweeted on January 22.