In a first, Kerala High court begins publishing judgements in vernacular

Kerala High Court has published two of its recent judgements in the state's vernacular language, Malyalam. This is a first of its kind development in the country, as reported by Bar and Bench.

The judgements were passed by a division of Chief Justice S Manikumar and Justice Shaji P Chaly in January 2023, and the same were made available in Malayalam on the High Court's website recently.

Notably, there has been a renewed push towards publishing High Court and Supreme Court judgements in regional languages since Chief Justice of India (CJI) D Y Chandrachud took office in November 2023. 

At around the same time these judgements were issued, the CJI declared that the process of releasing Supreme Court judgements in regional languages has begun.

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

The CJI, who has also been the head of the Supreme Court E-Committee for several years, also said that software is being developed with which machine learning will be used to translate Supreme Court judgements into various Indian languages, the report added.

"At a recent function, the Hon’ble CJI, Justice DY Chandrachud, spoke of the need to work towards making SC judgements 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.

With this development, the Kerala High Court has become the first high court in the country to take a step towards this goal.