A public interest litigation (PIL) has been filed in the Kerala High Court claiming that Parliament does not have the authority to name legislations in any other language other than English.

In the PIL, the petitioner, P V Jeevesh who is lawyer, has urged the court to issue directions to the Union government to provide English titles to the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita 2023, Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita 2023, and Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam 2023, which recently replaced the Code of Criminal Procedure, the Indian Penal Code, and the Indian Evidence Act, respectively.

The petitioner has argued that use of Hindi and Sanskrit titles to important legislation is “ultra vires”, according to the scheme of the constitution. He said such nomenclature proves disadvantageous to the legal fraternity in south India, where people are not conversant with Hindi and Sanskrit.

“The nomenclature in Hindi and Sanskrit for these legislations would create confusion, ambiguity, and difficulty for the legal community of non-Hindi and non-Sanskrit speakers, especially those belonging to the southern part of the nation,” PTI quoted him as saying.

The petitioner further added, "Moreover, the names provided in the aforesaid languages are hard to pronounce for non-Hindi and non-Sanskrit speakers. Therefore, it violates the fundamental right under Article 19 (freedom of speech and expression) of the Constitution", quoted PTI.

Jeevesh has also claimed that naming the three Acts in Hindi and Sanskrit undermines the mandate under Article 348 (Language to be used in the Supreme Court and in the High Courts and for Acts, Bills, etc.) of the Constitution.  

"Therefore, the action of the respondents 1 to 4 (Centre and Union Law Ministry) is a classic example of linguistic imperialism. The actions of the respondents 1 to 4 are autocratic, capricious, unjustified and arbitrary, and antithetical to the democratic values and the principles of federalism", the petitioner argued.