Prelude
In the year 1957, 19 day of November the Government of Tamil Nadu accorded sanction for the Constitution of Committee of Direction for the compilation of a glossary of Legal terms as a foundation for academic instruction in Law in the regional language. Among the functions entrusted to the committee are the translation of important enactments like the Indian Evidence Act, the transfer of property Act and discovery of suitable terms in Tamil for most of the legal concepts.
The committee first prepared a glossary of English-Tamil legal terms and has brought out two booklets covering the alphabetical letters A to D. Thereafter a change of approach has been adopted and it has prepared a glossary of legal concepts arranged in the alphabetical order giving their definition and equivalent terms in Tamil and has covered the alphabetical letters from A to N.
A glossary committee was constituted in 1957 under the Charimanship of Hon’ble Thiru. Justice M.Anantanarayana, ICS, the then Chief Justice, High Court of Madras while he was the Director of Legal studies. The Committee consisting of Prof.Dr.R.P.Sethupillai, Thiru.R.V.Krishna Iyer, Thiru.P.N.Appusami, Thiru. A.Alagirisami and Thiru. A.Palanisami as members was a prelude to the State Official Language (Legislative) Commission
As a result of the work of the committee a glossary of Legal terms from Alphabet ‘A’ to the Alphabet ‘D’ was published. The glossary consisted of word-to-word equivalent phrases which served as a most valuable foundation for compilation of Law Lexicon.
Law department of Government of Tamil Nadu dealing with State Official Language (Legislative) Wing.
Evaluation
State Official Language (Legislative) Commission was originally constituted in the year 1955 to finalise and publish the glossary of legal terms, to Undertake translation of Central and State Acts, Ordinances and the Rules and Notifications made there under into Tamil and any other work which may be entrusted to the Commission by the Government from time to time.
Tamil scholars interested in the implementation of Official Language in the Department of Administration of Justice are extending their help and expertising in translation work and publication activities.
The Commission always welcome the co-ordination of Tamil organisation who can came forward to work along with the functions of the commission. Commission want to compile and publish the Law Lexicon.
The inaugural function of the first Commission was celebrated in 1966 under the Chairmanship of the then Chief Minister, Thiru.M.Bhaktavatsalam, the then Chief Minister, Thiru.C.N.Annadurai and then Hon’ble Minister of Law Thiru S.Madhavan had throughout evinced keen interest in the work of that Commission, which was a source of great encouragement to the challenging assignment.