Chennai:
It's a fast track protest, with lawyers on a fast unto death for their right to argue in Tamil. Even after practicing as a lawyer for 15 years, Natarajan has to struggle to make ends meet. His problem, he often loses his cases because his opponents are more articulate in English.
Now he and others like him have decided to demand what they feel is a basic right.
"Language skills are different from legal skills. Don't think English speaking people alone are good and that others have no skill," said Sethubalan, an advocate.
The constitution allows arguments in the vernacular and already lawyers in the lower courts argue in Tamil.
But even though the Tamil Nadu assembly passed a resolution four years ago to make Tamil the court language in the Madras High Court, the union law ministry is yet to get the President's sanction.
"If the Chief Minister had genuine interest he could have got this done in no time," said Raju, an advocate.
The Tamil Nadu government says it's trying to expedite this on a fast track basis, but this issue has certainly come as a huge embarrassment just before the World Tamil Conference.