Key Indian Criminal Laws now available in Urdu

Mumbai: For the first time in India, key criminal laws as well as a dictionary of legal terms have been made available in Urdu. The “Taziraat-e-Hind” or the Indian Penal Code, 1860, and the “Qanoon Shahadat-e-Hind” or the Indian Evidence Act, 1872, bear the laws in Urdu both in Persian and Devnagri scripts, said the chief translator, Muhammad Irshad Hanif. The translations have been brought out by a New Delhi-based publishing house, along with a broad based legal dictionary, billed as the first of its kind in the country, and encompassing over 52,000 legal terms. It was also released recently. “It has a foreword written by Chief Justice of India, Altamas Kabir. Though the dictionary is focused on the Indian legal system, it will have wide usage even in the international sphere,” Hanif said. Justice (retd.) Markandey Katju has penned the foreword for the translations of the laws. The publication house, Imaan Media and Publishing House Pvt. Ltd. (IMPH) will shortly bring out translations of the Criminal Procedure Code (Cr.PC), 1973, and other Indian laws. Hanif said that at present, most of the legal work, barring in some lower courts, continues to be carried out in English and a vast majority of the laws are also not understood by most people knocking at the doors of courts of law. He expressed optimism that the new translated versions as well as the legal dictionary would help clear the peoples’ doubts on many issues and help them face the legal system with more confidence.