The law ministry has no intention to simplify the language of law, Minister of Law and Justice H R Bhardwaj said on Tuesday.
Replying to a recommendation made by the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Law and Justice, Bhardwaj warned that any effort to simplify legal language could lead to terminological inexactitude.
'It is difficult to deviate much from these terms and translations, as it would result into affecting the interpretation of the law,' Bhardwaj said in a written to reply in Lok Sabha.
However, taking a compassionate view to the complaints of difficulty in understanding the legal language, Bhardwaj suggested that explanatory notes could accompany the bills moved in Parliament, as is the practice in UK.
Observing that legislative language is often quite 'technical, intricate and incomprehensible' for the common man for whom the laws are made, the Parliamentary Committee wished if laws could be drafted in national or regional language and all central laws could be translated into Hindi in order to make provisions known to the masses.
'The ministry should explore ways and means to simplify laws so to be understood even by the people who have no specialised knowledge of legal formulations,' the committee said.
Stating that the ministry is committed to the use of simpler language wherever possible, Bhardwaj said the terms of legal use were decided and finalised by the Official Languages (Legislative) Commission, whose word in this matter was final.
