AUGUST 14, 2024

By Vijay Kumar

LONG ago I went to the Rashtrapati Bhavan to meet the President of India. I met a nice girl at the reception and told her that I wanted to meet the President and asked her for directions on how to go about it. She spoke to the Military Secretary and told him, "Sir, Andhra Pradesh se ek sajjan hey, voh rashtrapatiji se milna chaahte hain!" My Hindi was very poor, but I liked the word sajjan. She asked me to give an application and call her the next day to find out if I would get the appointment. The next day I called her up and told her, "I am your saajan from Andhra Pradesh". She was offended and told me that she had no saajan in Andhra Pradesh but explained to me that saajan meant lover and sajjan meant gentleman.

I remember some years ago, an Assistant Commissioner of Central Excise in Tamil Nadu received a letter in Hindi from an Assistant Commissioner in Madhya Pradesh. He replied in Tamil!

Once, while in Allahabad, where the purest Hindi is spoken, I asked a person for the address of . He thought I was mad and asked me to speak in English. I told him I wanted to go to the ‘Central Goods & Services and Central Excise Commissioner's office'. He told me, "I work there, come, I will take you."

A couple of years ago, a contemnor appeared before a bench of the Gujarat High Court headed by Chief Justice Aravind Kumar (as he then was; now he is a judge of the Supreme Court) insisting that he would speak only in Gujarati and not speak in any other language. The Court observed,

We are not inclined to accept his submission for reason more than one, firstly – we will not permit the contemnor to address the Court in the language which is not understood by this Court (by the Chief Justice), and secondly, Article 348 of the Constitution of India mandates that language of the High Court would be English and as such the submission made by the contemnor cannot be accepted.

During the oral hearing, the Chief Justice said that if the party is addressing in Gujarati, then he will respond in Kannada. 

What is GST in Hindi?

Some say it is some others call it Whatever you call it, it is confusing – in any language.

What is the language of GST? Can a GST appellate order be in Hindi, even if the appellant does not understand Hindi?

I am not telling you stories. It happened. Recently, a GST Commissioner (Appeals) passed an order in Hindi, in Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh. There appears to be no provision in the GST statute that all taxpayers in Andhra Pradesh and particularly in Visakhapatnam are required to be well-versed in Hindi. So, our taxpayer instead of joining a crash course in Hindi language to understand the order of the Commissioner, had the audacity to ask for the English version of the handwritten order of the learned Commissioner (Appeals), which he was pleased not to furnish.

Fortunately, there are still High Courts in the Country where you are allowed to seek justice through writ petitions. So, our taxpayer landed up in the High Court.

In the First hearing in the High Court on 11.07.2024, the Court directed:

1. The Commissioner (Appeals) to explain as to why certified copy of the said order has not been furnished in English with opportunity to the petitioner to point out any discrepancies between the order passed in Hindi and any certified copies that may be supplied.

2. In the meantime, no coercive steps shall be taken against the petitioner.

3. The Commissioner (Appeals) to be present before the Court by the next date of hearing to explain in person about the issue raised.

Interestingly another petitioner in this case was the Andhra Pradesh Township and Infrastructure Development Corporation Limited owned by the Government of Andhra Pradesh which prayed to the High Court to issue a writ of mandamus directing the Commissioner (Appeals) to provide a certified English translated copy of his order and the High Court observed, "In the absence of copy of the order being furnished in English, the rights of the petitioner to take further steps are severely impaired" and stayed the order. Apparently, the Government Corporation also did not understand the Hindi order of the Commissioner and had to approach the High Court for a translation.

The next hearing took place on 23.07.2024 and the Commissioner (Appeals) appeared in person and the High Court observed,

1. He relies upon certain documents in Hindi language to contend that 20% of the work in his office has to be conducted in Hindi.

2. We are handicapped by the fact that we are not able to follow the said documents which are entirely in Hindi.

3. Further, the official language of this Court is English.

4. The Writ Rules also provide that any document, in any language other than English, which is filed before this Court should be filed and translated in English.

5. Accordingly, he shall file the translated copy of the entire documents in English by the next date of hearing.

6. In the meantime, the impugned order shall remain stayed till further orders.

The case of the Commissioner (Appeals), for passing the orders in Hindi alone, is as follows:

a) Article 348 of the Constitution of India, which stipulates that orders, Rules, Regulations and Byelaws would be in English, would not be applicable to adjudicatory orders and they can be furnished in Hindi.

b) The report of the Law Commission of India (Report No.216, December 2008) at page 36 mentions that nothing prevents a Government Officer from passing orders in Hindi, as these orders can be challenged in the High Courts and Supreme Courts by producing English translations of the said orders. (This was an opinion given by Justice Malimath, a former judge and not the recommendation of the Law Commission – Jest GST )

c) Article 343 of the Constitution of India states that Hindi in Devanagari Script with international form of Indian Numerals is the official language of Union of India and the status of English is that of an associate language.

d) Article 344 of the Constitution of India provides that for the Constitution of an Official Languages Commission, whose recommendations are to be placed before the President for progressive introduction of Hindi for official purposes.

e) The Presidential Order, dated 02.07.2008, had accepted, one such recommendation of the Official Languages Commission, requiring 20% of the work to be carried out in Hindi, in regionscategorised as "C" region. Since Andhra Pradesh falls in "C " region, all the officers, including the Commissioner (Appeals), arerequired to carry out 20% of their work in Hindi and consequently, orders are being passed by the Commissioner (Appeals) in Hindi.

The Commissioner (Appeals) also stated that the total number of appeal Orders issued by him, from 21.06.2023, is 619, in which 506 are in English language and only 113 are in Hindi language.

The Commissioner (Appeals) also relies upon the judgments of the Hon‘ble Supreme Court in the cases of Murasoli Maran vs. Union of India and M.N. Ravichandran vs. Union of India to contend that the Hon‘ble Supreme Court had directed that Hindi is to be spread and there should be progressive increase in the use of Hindi language in central offices.

The Commissioner (Appeals)also contends that there is no provision under the CGST Act or any other Act,which directs that orders should be passed in English only and that orders cannot be passed in Hindi.

The High Court observed in its final order dated 5th August 2024 which we reported as 2024-TIOL-1294-HC-AP-GST

1. As per Rule 6 of the Official Language (Use for Official Purposes of the Union) Rules, 1976, both Hindi and English shall be used for all documents referred to in Section 3(3) of the Act and it shall be the responsibility of the persons signing such documents toensure that such documents are made, executed or issued both in Hindi and in English.

2. Apart from this, Rule 3(3) of the Rules stipulates that communications from a Central Government Office to a State or Union territory in region "C" or to any office (not being a Central Government office) or person in such State shall be in English.

3. A reading of these provisions would make it clear that any communications of a Central Government office require to be in both Hindi and English normally. However, any communication from a Central Government office to any person in region "C " shall be in English.

4. The aforesaid provisions offer clear guidelines to officers working in Central Government offices, in region "C" (within which the State of Andhra Pradesh is situated) that all communications to persons residing in such a region, should normally be in English. However, such communication can also be sent both in English and Hindi. This would require, the Commissioner (Appeals), to either serve a copy of the order passed by him in English, or to serve copies of the orders passed by him in both Hindi and English.

5. In the circumstances, service of the order passed by the Commissioner (Appeals) only in Hindi language is not permissible.

The High Court directed the Commissioner (Appeals), to furnish copies of the orders passed by him in English, to the petitioners, within three weeks from the date of receipt of a copy of the order. The High Court further directed that the orders passed by the Commissioner (Appeals) would not come into effect until English copies of the said orders are served on the petitioners and the limitation for the petitioners to take steps against such orders would commence only when the copies of such orders, in English, are served on the petitioners.

Will the Board take note?

It was argued that there is no provision under the CGST Act or any other Act,which directs that orders should be passed in English only and that orders cannot be passed in Hindi. So, according to this argument, orders can be passed in Tamil or Oriya or for that matter in French and Russian too.

And what is the difficulty in giving an English copy?

Until next week