The fine would be increased if it was paid in one day, the court said. (File Photo)
Highlights
- A grammatically incorrect translation of a judicial order had been filed
- Judges said they had to struggle for over an hour to make sense of it
- Rs. 25,000 fine will be increased if it's not paid in a day, warned court
The Supreme Court on Friday imposed a fine of Rs 25,000 on a petitioner in a criminal case for filing an English translation of a judicial order in Hindi with wrong grammar, incorrect construction of sentences, usage of words and punctuation.
Asking the petitioner to deposit the fine within 24 hours with the legal service authority, the judges said that it would be increased if it wasn't deposited the amount within a day.
The displeased judges said that they had to struggle for one hour to figure out the sense of the order, and that they have never come across an order blended with such grammatical and other mistakes.
The court imposed the fine after lawyer Aishwarya Bhati appearing for petitioner Vardha Ram told the bench that the grammatical errors were due to a faulty translation.
Initially, the top court bench had taken exception to the High Court judge passing an order in English which was erroneous on account of grammar, syntax, word usage of words and punctuation and sent the order back to the subordinate court for fresh order.
However, the vacation bench changed its order and imposed cost on the petitioner as Ms Bhati admitted to mistake by the "official translator" of the court below.
"You should have seen it (translation) yourself," the court told the lawyer and telling her that she should be "sorry".
"You should be sorry," the judges said.