Get Prez nod for Tamil in court: Jaya

AIADMK general secretary J. Jayalalithaa on Thursday called on chief minister M. Karunanidhi to exert pressure on the Centre and get President Pratibha Patil’s assent to make Tamil the official language of the Madras high court. To this backhanded comment in view of Ms Patil inaugurating the Tamil conference in Coimbatore,
she added that the CM would take such a step “if he had real affection for Tamil”.
“If the chief minister really has affection for Tamil language, he should put pressure on the Centre and get the President’s nod for Tamil to be made the official court language,” she said. Questioning his silence on the issue, the former chief minister said it was “disheartening” that Mr Karunanidhi has not taken up the issue with the President who at the Tamil conference.
Taking a dig at Mr Karunanidhi for organising the conference at Coimbatore, Ms Jayalalithaa referred to the oral consent given by chief justice of Madras high court M.Y. Eqbal to lawyers to argue their cases in Tamil, saying, “If we need to give full shape to this, then pressure should be exerted on the Centre to get the President’s assent for an Assembly resolution.”
The AIADMK chief said she is extremely happy that the chief justice said he is not opposed to lawyers arguing cases in Tamil. However, Ms Jayalalithaa noted, the chief justice had stated that he could not issue any circular in this regard. This meant that any order to this effect should come from the Centre, the AIADMK supremo said, quoting Article 348 (2) of the Constitution.