The Karnataka High Court has ruled that applicants can file petitions in Kannada and seek permission to argue in Kannada before the Karnataka Administrative Tribunal (KAT), while final orders must be issued in English. The court set aside a tribunal order that had returned a Kannada petition and directed the KAT to decide the original matter according to law.
A division bench comprising Justices Ashok S Kinagi and R Subramanya, sitting at Kalaburagi, allowed a writ petition filed by Kalaburagi-based photographer Suryakanth bin Ramachandra Kattimani. He had approached the High Court after the KAT directed him to submit his original application in English.
Kattimani had sought directions allowing him to submit the case file in Kannada and speak in Kannada during proceedings before the tribunal. His counsel, Shankar Kattimani, argued that Rule 3 of the Karnataka Administrative Tribunal (Procedure) Rules, 1986, permits documents to be filed in Kannada. The rule also allows the tribunal to permit the use of Kannada during hearings at its discretion, while requiring the final order to be issued in English.
The state government’s counsel argued that applications filed before the KAT had to be in English. The High Court rejected that interpretation after examining the 1986 rules alongside the Karnataka Administrative Tribunal Regulations, 1990.
The bench noted that Rule 9(iii) of the 1990 regulations permits pleadings, affidavits, memoranda and lists of documents submitted to the tribunal to be filed in either English or Kannada. Read with the 1986 rules, the provision allows parties to file applications in Kannada and permits the use of Kannada during hearings, subject to the requirement that the final order be prepared in English.
The court said the tribunal should have considered the 1990 regulations along with the 1986 rules before issuing its decision. It held that the tribunal had failed to consider this basic legal position properly and had consequently erred in passing the disputed order.
The case arose after the KAT returned Kattimani’s original application, citing Rule 3 of the 1986 procedure rules and directing him to submit it in English. The High Court has now quashed the KAT’s order dated June 5, 2025, allowed the petitioner’s interim application and directed the tribunal to dispose of the original application in accordance with law.
