24. Languages of the courts

10[(1) Sinhala and Tamil shall be the languages of the Courts throughout Sri Lanka and Sinhala shall be used as the language of the courts situated in all the areas of Sri Lanka except those in any area where Tamil is the language of administration. The record and proceedings shall be in the language of the Court. In the event of an appeal from any court records shall also be prepared in the language of the court hearing the appeal, if the language of such court is other than the language used by the court from which the appeal is preferred:

Provided that the Minister in charge of the subject of Justice may, with the concurrence of the

Cabinet of Ministers direct that the record of any court 10 - Substituted by the Sixteenth Amendment to the Constitution Sec. 4(1).

shall also be maintained and the proceedings conducted in a language other than the language of the court.]

Any party or applicant or any person legally entitled to represent such party or applicant may initiate proceedings and submit to court pleadings and other documents and participate in the proceedings in courts,

Any judge, juror, party or applicant or any person legally entitled to represent such party or applicant, who is not conversant with the language used in a court, shall be entitled to interpretation and to translation into 12[Sinhala or Tamil] provided by the State, to enable him to understand and participate in the proceedings before such court and shall also be entitled to obtain in 13[such language] any such part of the record or a translation thereof, as the case may be, as he may be entitled to obtain according to law.

The Minister in charge of the subject of Justice may, with the concurrence of the Cabinet of Ministers, issue, directions permitting 14[the use of English] in or in relation to the records and proceedings in any court for all purposes or for such purposes as may be specified therein.

In this Article –