MUMBAI: Citing a 25-year-old notification which clarified that Marathi was the language of criminal courts in Mumbai, a special MCOCA court rejected the plea of a 2011 triple blast accused who sought translation of 1,800 pages of case-related documents into English.
"Translating Marathi investigation papers into English is time-consuming and expensive," the court said. Accused Nadeem Akhtar, who is arguing his case, told court that he was only proficient in English and Urdu. He said he studied Marathi for only two years at school. Besides the notification, the court said that the process will be extremely expensive.
"Apart from thst discussion, the court offered services of advocate from the panel of Legal Services Authority of City Civil and Sessions Court, Mumbai, but he rejected it. In these set of facts and circumstances he cannot compel or seek directions against the state for providing English translated copies of chargesheet and documents filed along with chargesheet," the court said.
The court said the case was pending since 2012.
