PANJIM: Chief Minister Pramod Sawant rightly and beautifully has underlined that Goa is a multilingual State, where different languages are used for different tasks.
“Goa has always been known for four languages. As we all know, we speak in Konkani, we prefer to read Marathi newspapers along with English, we prefer to watch films in Hindi, and while writing, we prefer to use English. This is a State which is always known for four languages,” he said.
Sawant also said that promoting Hindi will not only make India even more united in its diversity but also aid the country to emerge as Akhand Bharat.
Sawant was addressing the 8th International Hindi Conference, wherein he also said that the government is already conducting Goa Legislative Assembly sittings in Konkani.
“In Goa, only English was used as legislature language, it is now in English and Konkani. The Bombay High Court branch in Goa functions in English. When we go to the judiciary to seek justice, it should be given in our language, it should work in Konkani. It will be our endeavour to ensure that it should function in English as well as in Konkani,” Sawant said.
The CM said that the State government will write to the Bombay High Court requesting consent to permit the use of Konkani, in addition to English, as the official language to conduct court proceedings at its Goa bench.
“We will definitely write to the High Court to consider our request,” the Chief Minister said. Konkani is the State’s official language.
Use of Konkani in High Court would not be fruitified: Ferreira
Former Advocate General and Congress MLA Adv Carlos Alvares Ferreira said that Chief Minister Pramod Sawant’s desire to use Konkani in High Court would not be fruitified unless Parliament makes an amendment since the Principal Seat of the High Court of Bombay was at Mumbai.
Stating that he personally welcomes the move as it would help a lot of people, especially those who cannot hire lawyers and who wants to argue their matter in person in Konkani, Ferreira pointed out to certain difficulties. He said that as per Article 348 of the Constitution, the Governor will have to make a request to the President of India and seek prior consent of the latter.
Ferreira said that for this, there has to be a Principal Seat in the State. Goa does not have a Principal Seat because the High Court is common for both, Goa and Maharashtra and that the Goa government will not be able to overcome the Constitutional provision.
According to Ferreira, the Goa Governor cannot make such a request in the absence of a Principal Seat of the High Court in Goa. In addition, most of the Judges of High Court of Bombay do not know Konkani except a few Judges hailing from Goa and it will be very difficult for the Judges to understand or interact. So it will be a distant dream to realise, he added.
