Supreme Court Flags 'Horrendous' Translations, Says AoRs Must Act Responsibly; Conveys Concerns To SCAORA President
Gursimran Kaur Bakshi
18 March 2025 11:57 AM
While hearing a matter pertaining to the employment of a teacher, the Supreme Court orally took a strong critical stand against the incorrect and mistranslated documents filed before it. It also called for the presence of Vipin Nair, President of the Supreme Court Advocates on Record Association (SCAORA) in the Court and questioned who should be responsible for the incorrect translations because Advocates on Record (AOR) are supposed to certify the documents submitted in the Court.
A bench of Justices J.K. Maheshwari and Aravind Kumar was reading an order of a tribunal on the reinstatement of the teacher, which was translated from Gujarati to English. While reading the order, apparently passed in 1999, the word "reinstated" was wrongly translated as "re-establishment". The bench continued to read the whole paragraph and remarked that the translation made no sense.
This made Justice Kumar pass some strong oral remarks on how AoRs do not read the translated documents and simply "dump" them on the Supreme Court. He said that the Court needs to come down "with an iron hand" to resolve the problem.
He said: "This is your [petitioner's] translation? Poor translation. You can dump it in the Supreme Court whatever you want to and get away with it. We don't want your apologies, madam. We are repeatedly, time and again saying, that this translation business has to stop. You give improper translation... you give incorrect translation and you argue whatever you want. Is this the way you treat the Supreme Court? We will make strong observations...Who will take responsibility for this translation? Please tell us, we will fix the responsibility. We will pass a judicial order...Because of your lapse, we are not prepared to do injustice to the parties. Please call the President of the Advocates on Record, Mr Nair. Please get him. We want to him it loud and clear. Either you pull up your socks or we will do it...We are experiencing this in every second case. Your translations are horrendous...What is this re-establishment? Obviously, it should be reinstated. This is basic English. "
Justice Maheshwari then called for Nair's presence and added that the Court would not pass any order unless he was made to see the mistranslated document. Subsequently, Nair showed up and was asked to read the document.
Nair submitted that earlier, there used to be a Supreme Court scheme for official translation but it was subsequently discontinued. He added that now, "good quality translators" are not available and therefore, it is an "infrastructure problem". As compared to this, the Delhi High Court has a pool of translators.
However, Justice Kumar remarked that the Delhi High Court may have such a scheme, but most High Courts do not.
Justice Kumar: "Delhi may be a pampered High Court. We don't know. Speaking for other High Courts, none of the High Courts any official translators. It is the responsibility of the lawyers who sign the Vakaltnama to undertake that they would certify true translation. In all Government matters, the official sending the papers will translate it and they will put their seal and signature and say, it is a true translated copy. Small mistakes, here and there [is not an issue] as everyone is bound to make such mistakes. But here, in one FIR, we saw that it is diametrically opposite to what the statement was given by the victim in a POCSO case under 164 CrPC. When we got the original FIR, it was the same as in the 164 statement. Whether we should take actions against the AoRs or not, you tell us?...The present case relates to a workman, a teacher..[and the order talks about] reinstatement and the translator says reestablishment and the Advocate on Record certifies it. This means the Advocate on Record has not read a single line."
Justice Maheshwari also added that translation by machine is not enough because it cannot maintain accuracy. A manual check of the translated documents is a must. Nair responded that the SCAORA will put it in writing on what measures can be taken to resolve the issue.
"We will take it up on highest priority," Nair submitted.
The Court subsequently passed an order allowing the AoR to file the tribunal's original order and its official translated copy. It also noted in its order that Nair was called upon by the Court in regards to raising the issue of mistranslation of documents, and the SCAORA will take urgent measures to resolve the issue.