Translation from Hindi to English and vice versa
LUG-105 English and Legal Language, Unit V: Translation from Hindi to English and vice versa. · LLB · 60 min
Every trial record in the Hindi States travels upward in translation, the Hindi texts of the Acts are translations with the force of law, and the Supreme Court now translates its judgments into the scheduled languages. This lecture explains the role of translation in the Indian judicial system (Article 348, the Official Languages Act, SUVAS), the particular difficulties of legal translation and the principles that answer them, and then works through, in full and in both directions, every passage the papers have set - the presidential and parliamentary executive, codification, Article 142, public opinion, the Union of States and the five court sentences of 2025-26.
Objectives
- Explain the role of translation in the Indian judicial system with reference to Article 348, the Official Languages Act, 1963, the Authoritative Texts (Central Laws) Act, 1973 and the Supreme Court's SUVAS project.
- Identify the challenges of translating legal texts between Hindi and English - terms of art, false friends, register, sentence length, 'shall' - and apply the principles that meet them.
- Use the standard Hindi equivalents of common legal terms consistently.
- Translate a legal or general passage from English into Hindi and from Hindi into English in examination conditions, faithfully and in good idiom.
Slides
- Translation inside the Indian judicial system
- What legal translation is - and what makes it different
- The challenges of translating legal texts between Hindi and English
- Principles and a working method
- Worked translation 1: the presidential and parliamentary executive (English to Hindi, 2017-18)
- Worked translation 2: codification (Hindi to English, 2017-18)
- Worked translation 3: Article 142(1) (English to Hindi, 2019-20)
- Worked translation 4: public opinion and democracy (English to Hindi, 2022-23)
- Worked translation 5: the Union of States (English to Hindi, 2023-24) and the five sentences of 2025-26
- How accurate translation serves justice
- How the examiner asks it
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