Along with English a lawyer should be well versed in the local language of his region: Chief Justice of India Justice DY Chandrachud

When I came to Allahabad from the Bombay High Court. I found that things here were different. Work in Bombay High Court was done in English but here in Allahabad, I found that lawyers begin conversations in Hindi.

This made me realize that lawyers can put their viewpoints in a better way in the local language.

Chief Justice of India, Justice DY Chandrachud said this while speaking at the convocation ceremony at Dr Ram Mqanohar Lohia Law University at Lucknow.

He said when one is hearing a criminal case, like murder or attack, it is imperative to understand in Hindi how and with what weapon the murder had been committed else one would not be able to understand what the witnesses were saying.

These observations made by the CJI were received with thunderous applause by the lawyers present on the occasion.

He said English cannot explain the love that a mother has for her child, she cannot tell the child the right way, in the same way, the English language cannot explain in English a crime that has taken place between two farmers. Everything cannot be translated into English.

It was only after coming to Uttar Pradesh, that I realized how important was land to the people of this place. What ‘tal and talaiya’ mean in legal language?

 A lawyer should know how to make the common man understand legal principles and language.

 Justice Chandrachud said, he does not mean that English be shunned away but along with it lawyers should be well versed in the local language and they should adopt the same 

Justice Chandrachud became a judge at the Bombay High Court on March 29, 2000 Earlier he was appointed as Additional Solicitor General. He was appointed Chief Justice at the Allahabad High Court on 31 October 2013 and Judge at the Supreme Court of India on May 13, 2016. He has been a visiting professor at Mumbai University and also at Oklahoma University School of Law