 bill no 164 of 2018 the supreme court, high courts and district courts (use of official languages) bill, 2018 by shri gopal chinayya shetty, mp a billto provide for the use of official languages in the proceedings of the supreme court, high courts and district courts and for matters connected therewith or incidental theretobe it enacted by parliament in the sixty-ninth year of the republic of  india as follows:—short title and commencement1 (1) this act may be called the supreme court, high courts and 'district courts (useof official languages) act, 2018(2) it shall come into force on such date as the central government may, by a notificationin the official gazette, appointdefinitions2 in this act, unless the context otherwise requires,—(a) "appointed day" means the date as may be notified by the appropriate government for the purposes of this act;(b) "appropriate government" means—(i) in the case of the supreme court and the high courts, the central government; and(ii) in the case of a district court, the state government concerned;5(c) "district court" includes the courts subordinate thereto established in the states by the high court concerned;(d) "document" means document as defined in section 3 of the indian evidence act, 1872;10(e) "high court" means a court as defined in clause (14) of article 366 or established under article 231 of the constitution and includes its benches;(f) "official language" means the official language of the union under article 343of the constitution and includes the language in use for official purposes in any state;(g) "party" includes any person authorized by the party to the matter or an advocate for the party;15(h) "proceedings" include pleadings, petition, application, appeal, reference, revision, review, affidavit, counter affidavit, other documents filed or received during course of conduct of the matter, appearance, leading of arguments, during hearing in any matter, judgment, decree or order and such other matters as may be prescribed by the supreme court, high courts or district court, as the case may be; and(i) "supreme court" means the supreme court of india203 (1) from the appointed day, any party to the proceedings before the supreme court or any high court or district court, as the case may be, shall have the right to prefer the official language in conduct of such proceedings in that court25right of the party to prefer official language during the course of proceedings(2) the party to the proceedings shall make an application to the supreme court, high court or district court for the conduct of the proceedings in the official language in such manner as may be laid down by the supreme court or the high court or district court concerned, as the case may be304 (1) where any party to the proceedings has made preference for the conduct of proceedings in official language, the supreme court or high court or district court, as the case may be, shall conduct proceedings before it in that official language(2) the supreme court, high court or district court, as the case may be, may lay down by rules the procedure for conduct of proceedings in the official language:conduct of proceedings in the supreme court, high courts and district courtsprovided that such procedure shall not entail any additional expense on any party to the case for conducting such proceedings in the official language355 the appropriate government shall take such measures as may be necessary to ensure availability of requisite infrastructure in the supreme court, high courts and district courts for the conduct of proceedings in the official languagemeasures by appropriate government for providing requisite infrastructure40explanation—for the purpose of this section, requisite infrastructure includes appropriate translation and typing facility in the official language and such other facilities as may be necessary for conduct of the proceedings in the official languages statement of objects and reasonsarticle 345 of the constitution provides that the legislature of a state may by law adopt any one or more of the languages in use in the state or hindi as the language or languages to be used for all or any of the official purposes of that statearticle 350 provides that every person shall be entitled to submit a representation for the redress of any grievance to any officer or authority of the union or a state in any of the languages used in the union or in the state, as the case may bearticle 351 provides that it shall be the duty of the union to promote the spread of the hindi language, to develop it so that it may serve as a medium of expression for all the elements of the composite culture of india and to secure its enrichment by assimilating without interfering with its genius, the forms, style and expressions used in hindustani and in the other languages of india specified in the eighth schedule, and by drawing, wherever necessary or desirable, for its vocabulary, primarily on sanskrit and secondarily on other languagesnonetheless, article 348 provides that parliament may, by law provide for the use of language other than english for the proceedings in the supreme court and high courts however, at present all the work in the courts is being transacted in english language only it is a matter of concern for most of the persons in the country until and unless the petitioner is able to understand the language of the hearing, right to just hearing cannot be ensured there is a legal saying that justice should not only be done, but it should also be seen to be done everyone has a right to get justice in the language he is well versedhence this billaugust 3, 2018 financial memorandumclause 5 of the bill provides that the appropriate government shall take such measures as may be necessary for ensuring availability of requisite infrastructure in the supreme court, high courts and district courts within its jurisdiction for conduct of proceedings in the official language in the supreme court, high courts and district courts, as the case may be the bill, therefore, if enacted, will involve expenditure from the consolidated fund of india however, at this stage, it is not possible to quantify the exact amount of recurring and non-recurring expenditure likely to be involved———— a billto provide for the use of official languages in the proceedings of the supreme court, high courts and district courts and for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto————(shri gopal chinayya shetty, mp)mgipmrnd—1842ls(s3)—01-11-2018