Justice Anand Venkatesh of the Madras High Court recently said that he will continue to refer to the criminal laws by their original names even after they get replaced by new laws as he does not understand Hindi, reported Bar and Bench on Wednesday.

In December, the Parliament passed the Bharatiya Nyaya (Second) Sanhita, 2023, to replace the colonial-era Indian Penal Code, the Bharatiya Sakshya (Second) Bill, 2023, to replace the Code of Criminal Procedure and the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha (Second) Sanhita, 2023, to replace the Indian Evidence Act.

On Tuesday, Justice Anand Venkatesh was hearing a matter related to cognisance and extension of periods of limitation under Code of Criminal Procedure Sections 460 and 473.

Additional Public Prosecutor A Damodaran asked the judge to look into the “new Act” while referring to the treatment of the provision in the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023.

At this point, Justice Venkatesh, in a lighter vein, asked Damodaran to pronounce the name of the new law, which the prosecutor struggled to do, according to The Hindu.

To this, the judge remarked: “So, Damodaran has cleverly chosen to simply refer to it as new Act.” He then told the lawyers present in the court that he would continue to refer to the three criminal laws by their original English names as he was not fluent in Hindi.

“I was taking some time to pronounce the new name when he ‘[Justice Venkatesh] said that we were all in the same boat when it came to Hindi,” Damodaran later said.

The new bills received the assent of President Droupadi Murmu on December 25. However, the Union home ministry has yet to specify the date from when they will take effect.