Delhi High Court on Wednesday sought responses of the Centre and city police on a plea seeking directions to replace “archaic and difficult words and phrases of Persian and Urdu language” with simple Hindi or English words for day-to-day work at police stations.
A bench of Chief Justice G Rohini and Justice Jayant Nath issued notice to Ministry of Home Affairs and Commissioner of Delhi police on a PIL opposing “use of Urdu and Persian words in proceedings at police stations, recording of statements, submitting of challan in courts, etc”.
The plea, by advocate Amit Sahni, has submitted that cops are trained at the Police Training College here to use Urdu and Persian words.
“It is not only cumbersome for Delhi Police officers, who have to learn these archaic Urdu/Persian words but also for accused/counsels and even judicial officers to learn these words in order to understand the proceedings of police,” the PIL has said.
The petition has also said that “it would be reasonable and convenient for everyone concerned if such archaic words are replaced with simple words of Hindi/English” as it would decrease burden on training cops to use such words.
Sahni has said in his plea he had made a representation on March 2, 2015, to the ministry and police to replace the archaic words with simple ones, but no action has been taken till date.
He has also said that “the practice of using Persian and Urdu words in police complaints was common, but many states have issued directions to discontinue the usage of such perplexing terms.
“For instance, Haryana Police has recommended the use of Hindi in complaints, charge sheets, reports and other proceedings connected with police investigation,” the petitioner contended.
PTI