Justice Abhijit Ganguly speaks about using Bengali in courtroom

There is no need to cut out the tongue to speak the mother tongue. Feel free to speak Bengali in court. Justice Abhijit Ganguly gave such a message to the judicial system of the Calcutta High Court lawyer-turned-judiciary and even the larger judiciary by conducting hearings in Bengal throughout the day on Thursday. He remembered the ‘Language Martyr’s Day’.

He said, “If you have to cut your tongue while speaking Bengali, then February 21 is meaningless.” On this day, the judge himself spoke in Bengali throughout the day and encouraged others to speak. Do you ever want to know yourself, can the word ‘reply’ be called ‘answering affidavit’? Many people address the judge as Huzur instead of ‘My Lord’. He called upon every lawyer present in the court to conduct the hearing in Bengali language.

As the reason for this, he said, “I have seen many litigants and lawyers, many people come to my court and they do not understand English questions and answers properly. I noticed that many people came here and cut their tongues because they spoke in Bengali. Even though no applicant came and said he did not understand the conversation in English! He has the right to know about his trial.’’ However, the court also said that the question will be in English for those who want to question in English. The judge announced this decision at the beginning of the hearing of the case. A lawyer speaks in Bengali while hearing a case. After apologizing, he started questioning again in English.

In view of that, Justice Gangopadhyay said, say it in Bengali. He will talk in Bengali all day long. He said, “If the Supreme Court wants an answer, I will answer it. We have to take the courts to the people.’’ It is often not understood by the common people present in the court including litigants. So Justice Gangopadhyay had already said about hearing in mother tongue.