A.No.3154 of 2022

A.No.3154 of 2022

in

OP SR.No.45981 of 2022

KRISHNAN RAMASAMY, J.

This application has been filed by the applicant, urging this Court to

accept the English translation of a Tamil Will dated 21.09.2017 in respect of

which, Letters of Administration has been sought for by the applicant in the

Original Petition.

2. The learned counsel appearing for the applicant would submit that

though the Will has been filed along with the petition in the month of April,

the matter has been pending for want of translation of the same and hence,

the applicant himself got translated it in English and filed the same.

Therefore, the learned counsel would urge this Court to accept the same and

prays for early disposal without any further delay.

3. Considering the submission made by the learned counsel for the

applicant and to avoid delay in the matter, this Court feels it appropriate to

allow the application. Accordingly, this Application is allowed. The

1/4

https://www.mhc.tn.gov.in/judis

A.No.3154 of 2022

Registry is directed to number the O.P. And list it before this Court.

However, it is made clear that later any discrepancy is found in the

translated version of the Will, the applicant will be held responsible.

4. In fact, the work of translation of Wills and other documents from

one language to English has been undertaken by the Interpretors in the

Original Side, appointed by the Registry. While so, after taking note of the

present application, this Court enquired with the Registry, which brought to

the notice of this Court that there are only three Interpretors available as

against the sanctioned strength of 11 posts in different languages. It is quite

surprising to note that no recruitment of Interpretors has been made by the

Registry for over a decade, i.e. after 2009.

5. There are more than 60 Wills pending on the file of the Registry for

translation and such translation is being done in a chronological order

corresponding to the date of filing. It is very unfortunate that earlier, when

this Court required a document of Malayalam language to be translated into

English, since there was no Malayalam Interpretor, despite sanctioned post,

2/4

https://www.mhc.tn.gov.in/judis

A.No.3154 of 2022

the job was sought to be done by taking the assistance of Kerala High Court.

The post of Interpretor does not only involve translating the Wills,

documents into English, but also attending the Master and Additional

Masters' Courts for the purpose of recording the evidence in Testamentary

proceedings, Guardian O.P.s, Execution Petitions and Insolvency Petitions

and they also act as Commissioners' of Oaths for party-in-persons and

litigants who are not acquainted with English language and sign in

vernacular. Due to insufficient strength of Interpretors, the matters have

been adjourned from time to time, which prompted the parties to come

forward with the applications, like present one, urging this Court to accept

the translated Wills into English from different languages and this Court,

without verification, is constrained to accept the same in order to avoid the

delay, which causes much inconvenience to this Court.

6. Therefore, in order to avoid delay in getting the translation of the

documents and inconvenience, the Registrar (Recruitment), High Court of

3/4

https://www.mhc.tn.gov.in/judis

A.No.3154 of 2022

KRISHNAN RAMASAMY, J.

Suk

Madras, is directed to take earnest efforts for filling up of the vacancies of

Interpretors on a war footing and complete the process of filling up of the

same within a reasonable time, preferably within a period of three months

to nine months and enable the Courts dealing with the cases on Original

side, to dispose of the matters without depending upon the translated copies

of Wills and other documents being filed by the parties themselves.

Suk

03.08.2022

Copy to

The Registr