‘All conversation in court happens in English’: Gujarat HC dismisses man’s plea to appear for himself

You do not understand English, we (court) do not understand Gujarati, court tells applicant, advises him to appoint a lawyer.

3 min readVadodaraUpdated: Jan 31, 2026 09:39 AM IST

‘English is the official language of court’: Gujarat HC dismisses man’s plea to appear for himself

The court orally advised the applicant to apply to the High Court Legal Service Committee for appointment of a lawyer so as to not jeopardise his case. (Credits: Pexels)

The Gujarat High Court on Thursday dismissed an application of a man against the decision of the Competence Certificate Committee of the court, which denied him ‘competence certificate’ on the ground that he could not represent his case in English.

The ‘competence certificate’ allows a petitioner to appear before the court as party-in-person.

Emphasising that the language of official communication in the court is English, a Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Sunita Agarwal and Justice D N Ray on Thursday heard the applicant Amrutlal Parmar, who seeking the intervention of the court in getting a competence certificate to appear as party-in-person and make submissions in his native language, Gujarati.

Explaining to the applicant that appearing in person in proceedings before the High Court is “not a right”, but based on the permission granted by the committee after gauging competence of the applicant, the court orally advised the applicant to apply to the High Court Legal Service Committee for appointment of a lawyer so as to not jeopardise his case.

While the applicant stated that he had previously appeared as party-in-person in other cases, the court explained to the applicant that understanding legal proceedings is important.

“The decision (to not issue the competence certificate) has been taken to prevent disadvantage (to the applicant) during the proceedings… your case should be presented well in the court. the court should understand the factual and legal aspect (of your case) and so provision has been made for this competency certificate…You do not understand English; we (court) do not understand Gujarati…We also dictate orders in English… The judgments that are cited in the courts are in English. All the conversation in court happens in English. The lawyers of the opposing parties will also make submissions in English. You will not understand the proceedings; this is not a language of common conversation, but a legal language. In order to fight your case well, it is important for you to understand the legal language…,” the court orally said.

The court also noted that the applicant had studied up to SSC and not pursued law. “This is not a platform to give speeches or for you to gain anything else out of it. You need to represent your case well and understand things legally… We also dictate orders in English and you may not understand what is going on in the proceedings of your court,” the court said.