Supreme Court Releases Videos On Historic 'Kesavananda Bharati' Judgment In 10 Indian Languages

On December 7, 2023 the Chief Justice of India (CJI) DY Chandrachud announced that the Keshavananda Bharti judgement video, commemorating the 50th anniversary of the landmark case, is now available in 10 Indian languages on the Supreme Court's website. CJI Chandrachud emphasized the importance of breaking down language barriers to make the work of the court accessible to a wider section of society. "Language barriers prevent people from truly understanding the work of the court," he said, highlighting the significance of translating legal content into regional languages.

On the 50th anniversary of the landmark judicial pronouncement in the Kesavananda Bharati case, the Supreme Court had released a video dedicated to the historic 1973 Fundamental Rights case. The video provides the viewers with the details of the case background, key legal issues involved, the judges who presided over the bench, the advocates who appeared in the case, arguments made and the conclusions reached. 

"We had created a webpage for the judgement to mark the 50 years of Keshavananda Bharti. To reach out to a wider section of our society, I thought we could translate it into Indian languages," CJI Chandrachud explained.

The ten Indian languages in which the video has been translated are English, Hindi, Telugu, Tamil, Odia, Malayalam, Gujarati, Kannada, Bengali, Assamese, and Marathi. This initiative, as per the CJI, follows the Supreme Court's ongoing efforts to translate judgements into various Indian languages, with 20,000 judgements already uploaded on the electronic version of the Supreme Court Reports (eSCR).

Solicitor General (SG) Tushar Mehta expressed that this initiative brings awareness to people who were familiar with the Keshavananda Bharti judgement but unaware of the monumental importance behind it.

CJI Chandrachud also highlighted the impact on students, particularly those in less resourceful colleges. He said–

"Students for instance, who were not in highly resourced colleges- they can't even access Judgements. Now a student who wants to read a judgment in eSCR in Hindi can...now you have the same free text facility in Hindi as is in English."

The Solicitor General added, "India must be the first country to start this," to which CJI Chandrachud confirmed, "No other country has. We were talking to the other Chief Justices who had come at the NALSA event. They were also saying they'll do this in their jurisdictions."