Language and contents of the Judgment

It is Section 354 Cr.P.C. which provides for the language as well as the contents of the judgment in a criminal case. Section 354 reads as:

“Sec. 354. (1) Except as otherwise expressly provided by this Code, every judgment referred to in Section 353,-

(a) Shall be written in the language of the Court;

(b) Shall contain the point or points for determination, the decision thereon and the reasons for the decision;

(c) Shall specify the offence (if any) of which, and the section of the Indian Penal Code (45 of 1860) or other law under which, the accused is convicted and the punishment to which is sentenced;

(d) If it be a judgment of acquittal, shall state the offence of which the accused is acquitted and direct that he be set at library.

(2) When the conviction is under the Indian Penal Code (45 of 1860) and it is doubtful under which of two sections, or under which of two parts of the same section, of that Code the offence falls, the Court shall distinctly express the same, and pass judgment in the alternative.

(3) When the conviction is for an offence punishable with death or, in the alternative, with imprisonment for life or imprisonment for term of years, the judgment shall state the reasons for the sentence awarded and in the case of sentence of death, the special reasons for such sentence.

(4) When the conviction is for an offence punishable with imprisonment for a term of one year or more, but the Court imposes a sentence of imprisonment for a term of less than three months, it shall record its reasons for awarding such sentence, unless the sentence is one of imprisonment till the rising of the Court or unless the case was tried summarily under the provisions of this Code.

(5) When any person is sentenced to death, the sentence shall direct that he be hanged by the neck till he is dead.

(6) Every order under Sec. 117 per sub-sec (2) of Sec. 138 and every final order made under Sec. 125, Sec. 145 or Sec. 147 shall contain the point or points for determination, the decision thereon and the reasons for the decision.

Thereafter, Section 354 Cr.P.C. provides that a judgment shall be in the language of the Court. Strangely, the Criminal Rules of Practice, 1990 (which suffers from many inherent weaknesses) did not state what the language of the Court is whereas, the Civil Rules of Practice 1983 elaborately gave the list of the languages of the Court.

Therefore, the language of the Court as stated in the Civil Rules of Practice as a guiding rule may have to be adopted by the Courts in the State of Andhra Pradesh as the language of the respective Courts. Briefly, Telugu and English are the languages of every Court in the State of Andhra Pradesh.

The boarder districts adjoining Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Orissa have the respective languages of the Border States also as the language of the Court.

For instance, Chittoor district has Tamil also as the language of the Court whereas; Anantapur and Kurnool districts have Kannada as one of the languages of the Court.

While Adilabad district has Marathi as one of the languages of the Court, Vizianagaram and Srikakulam Districts have Oriya also as the language of the Court. At one time, the judicial officers of the State of Andhra Pradesh were expected to pass Telugu Language Test unless, their mother tongue is Telugu.

Now, although Kannada, Tamil, Marathi and Oriya are languages of the Court in some districts, if any document is laid in that language before the Court the party shall necessarily file either an English translation or a Telugu translation.

Such translations are to be filed for the documents executed in the National Language Hindi, or even of Urdu language in Hyderabad where Urdu is the language. It is suggested that an English translation should always be filed to give confidence.