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3 years ago

Bangladesh's Supreme Court to issue all verdicts in Bangla soon: Chief Justice

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The Supreme Court will start issuing all its orders and verdicts in Bangla soon, Chief Justice Syed Mahmud Hossain has said.

Work is underway to translate the judgments of the country's top courts to Bangla, according to him, reports bdnews24.com. 

The chief justice made the remarks after paying homage to the martyrs of the 1952 Language Movement at Shaheed Minar on Sunday.

"We have formed a translation cell in line with the directive of the prime minister and they have already started their work," he said.

The authorities have been using a software to translate the verdict to Bangla since December, Chief Justice Hossain added.

"It automatically translates the Supreme Court verdicts from English to Bangla. We'll take further steps once the translation work is done."

Justices from two divisions of the Supreme Court and lawyers accompanied the chief justice while paying tribute.

Bangladesh introduced the 'Bangla Language Implementation Act, 1987' in a bid to ensure the use of Bangla in all spheres, including the courts. But the authorities have often faced criticism for failing to fully implement the law.

The High Court, too, on several occasions has ordered the use of Bangla in all official activities of the government and administration, as well as on car number plates, signboards, nameplates and television advertisements.

A rule has also been issued to stop the distortion of the Bangla language in radio and television programmes or advertisements. But even in the High Court, the initiative to introduce Bangla at all levels failed to gain much traction.

A few years ago, an MP brought a proposal in parliament to make the use of Bangla compulsory in all court activities but to little avail.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina also stressed the need to write court verdicts in Bangla in addition to English.

As the judgments are written in English, many litigants have to rely on lawyers to fully understand what it says, according to Hasina.

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