The Bombay High Court has directed that henceforth the state government should hold examinations for prosecutors in Marathi as well while saying that it should seriously implement its policy to promote the Marathi language.
The direction came in an order of Sep 7 on a petition filed by one Pratap Jadhav who had sought that the examination for the post of public prosecutor be held in Marathi too, instead of only in English.
Jadhav had said in his petition that Marathi is the local language and that he had studied in Marathi since school and that proceedings before the Judicial Magistrate First Class and Civil Judge Junior Division are carried out mostly in Marathi.
The division bench of Justices S V Gangapurwala and R N Laddha said in the order that the Maharashtra government ought to have been serious on the issue.
It pointed out that examinations of the magistrates and civil judges can be answered in Marathi, but for the post of the public prosecutor of the same facility, such facility is not provided. "In fact, it is the general stand of the government to promote the local language (Marathi)," the order said.
During the hearing of the petition, Additional Government Pleader Molina Thakur had submitted that this year 7,700 candidates are appearing for the examination for the posts of public prosecutors. She claimed that only Jadhav has raised the objection over the language and that it may not be possible to find an examiner to assess the answer papers in Marathi.
The court added that for this year the examination being on Sep 11, it may not be possible for an order to be passed for the present year’s exam. It said the order would help in implementing the state government's policy of promoting Marathi, the state language.
