Do away with archaic language in papers: L-G VK Saxena

NEW DELHI: In a move that will make legal documents such as FIRs and property registration papers easily comprehensible to people, Delhi Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena has instructed police, land and revenue officials to do away with their archaic language, official sources said on Wednesday.

At a recent meeting with officials on “ease of doing business”, Saxena instructed the officials for making the public interface with the government easily understandable to the citizens, they added. “He said the archaic language being used in the documents of various departments, particularly the police, land and revenue departments, the sub-registrar’s office, the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) and the lower judiciary, needs to be changed and updated according to the contemporary linguistic needs of people,” one of the sources said.

In many departments, including police, land and revenue, an old language format with a predominance of Persian and Urdu words, in accordance with British-era laws, is used for official purposes that is difficult to understand for many people, the sources said.

The LG has asked the home and revenue department officials of the Delhi government to simplify the language used in police summonses, FIRs, land records, mutation and registry documents and several other legal documents in a “time-bound” manner, they added.