A group of five advocates who is practicing out of courts of Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Haryana, have challenged the Constitutionality of the Haryana Official Language (Amendment) Act, 2020 which is contended to have “arbitrarily” made Hindi as the official language of courts in Haryana.
Lawyers Sameer Jain, Sandeep Bajaj, Angad Sandhu, Suvigya Awasthi, and Anant Gupta have assailed an Amendment made to Section 3A of the Haryana Official Languages Act, 1969, whereby Hindi has been designated as the sole official language to be mandatorily used for conducting all work in the civil and criminal courts in Haryana.
The primary prayer of the petition is that to strike down the amendment as violative of Articles 14, 19 and 21 of the Indian Constitution as it creates an unreasonable classification between Hindi and non-Hindi speaking advocates.
It precludes the use of English which is used widely to conduct legal proceedings. This has impugned upon the right to freely practice the legal profession and earn a livelihood as guaranteed under Article 14, 19 and 21 of the Constitution.
The petitioner added that everyone practicing law in Haryana not only know Hindi but are fluent with it. The amendment staffing that imposing Hindi is for people of the state and necessary to get justice is “wholly irrational’’.
Highlighting how mandatory Hindi could be problematic for lawyers, the plea states that the level of fluency and expertise needed to argue and represent a matter in Hindi is much more than a simple understanding of the language.