State Official Language Legislative Commission
India is a country of vast diversity in languages. Language is the tool of communication. Language is spoken and heard, written and read, to bring people together and to make community / Law and society are related to each other / Law control the existence of state. Civilization and culture of a state is measured by the system of Administration of Justice prevailing in a country.
The render lying concept of Rule of Law is that people should understand and appreciate the nature of Administration of Justice.
Laws coded in language and legal concepts are accessible only through language. Laws has its own technical language which is called legal language and it is different from common or ordinary language, with its own terminology and style. The rules of language are known as subsidiary rules. The ejusdem generis rule literally means of the same kind.
[The general word shall not extend in its effect beyond subjects ejusdem generis.
[A rule of construction} உரிச்சொல்/ சட்டத்துறை – ஒத்தவகை]
Languages can be divided into various categories in accordance with the use, such as scientific language, Commercial language. legal language so on so forth. This Commission particularly deals with legal language giving appropriate translation for legal terms and languages. Linguistic characteristics of the language of law are manifested with respect to lexicon, syntax, pragmatics and style.
The adequate flow of communication to different categories of persons are necessary for natural justice/ English is the lingua franca that bridges the languages divide across different states. Language should not be barrier of communication with regard to knowledge.
State Official Language (Legislative) Commission
The Government of Tamil Nadu to bring out the publications of Central and State Governments acts in Tamil to cater to the needs of subordinate courts especially for court officers, advocates and the public.
It is stated that the Fifth State Official Language (Legislative) Commission has been reconstituted by a G.O. (MS) No. 321 dated 05.06.2023 by appointing as
Hon’ble Mrs. Justice R. Tharani
Chairperson of the Commission
And Hon’ble chairperson sworn on 12.06.2023 as chairperson of the fifth state official language (legislative) commission.
The Commission translates and publishes the Acts enacted by Parliament and rules made there into Tamil. So, starting from the Constitution of India it had been translating Central Government Acts into our State Official Language.
The Commission would be translating into Tamil, State and Central Acts. Ordinances, rules, notification and other reports.
The main aim of the Commission is to bring out more publications with the adequate support of the Government.
This Commission has also translated many Central Acts and got authentication from the President of india, and also is the revised diglot edition of the Constitution of india (revised upto 31st January, 2021) incorporating all the amendments with Glossary have been published by this Commission.
The fourth State Official Language (Legislative) Commission was reconstituted on 29.08.2018. ,
The Hon’ble Thiru. Justice P.Kalaiyarasan
Retired Judge of the High Court, Madras
Chairman of the State Official Language (Legislative) Commission.
There are Three Full Time Members, Three Part-time Members and Member Secretary. The details are:-
There were four members in the Commission. The Commission translated the Indian Constitution in Tamil and published it. This Commission has also translated many Central Acts and published them in book form. The tenure of the Commission ended in the year 1972 and the commission was merged.
The Third State Official Language (Legislative) Commission was again reconstituted in the year 1989.
Thiru. M.Shanmuga Subramanian
Chairman of the Commission
The State Official Language (Legislative) Commission has been departmentalised in the year 1992 as a wing of the Law Department headed by an Additional Secretary to Government, Law Department under the overall control and supervision of the Secretary to Government, Law Department.
This Commission has translated Criminal Procedure Code, Indian Penal Code and Indian Evidence Act in three and half months and printed it TamilNadu Government press and published it on 14 November 1976. The Commission also published Glossary of Legal terms and translated Many Central Acts especially.
The second State Official Language (Legislative) Commission was reconstituted on 27th April 1976
Thiru. Justice S. Maharajan
Chairman
There were totally ten members in the Commission. They are
The first commission was instrumental in bringing out the Law Lexicon from Alphabets A to Z, which was published in the year 1968. The Law Lexicon is a By compendium of legal terms with adequate clarity and precision, rebid upon by Judges, Lawyers and public even today.
The First State official Language (Legislative) Commission Consisted of
Hon’ble Justice Thiru. M. Anantanarayanan, I.C.S.,
Chief Justice, High Court of Madras,
Another notable feature of the commission’s endeavour is the rendering of the Latin Legal maxims into Tamil maxims. By expressing the maxims appropriately in Tamil. The commission realized by experience, the peculiarly happy characteristics of the Tamil language for embodying such legal expression, namely brevity, condensation and directness.
In the first State Official Language (Legislative) Commission it is stated that, knowledge is ever growing and language, which is but a vehicle of knowledge, cannot be static. So, there can be no finality about any work of this kind. Hence, that Commission is conscious that there is room for improvement with regard to the various expression used in the Law Lexicon.
The Law Lexicon in Tamil published by the commission was first work of this kind and has not been published in any other Indian language at that time, which is an indispensable aid for the growth of legal literature in Tamil and for the translation of status in Tamil.