NEW DELHI, Nov 13: The Chief Justice of India NV Ramana and the Solicitor General Tushar Mehta representing the central government on Saturday got into a debate in a lighter vein who among them has a better knowledge of English.
The discussion was on the deteriorating air quality in the Delhi capital region necessitating urgent steps from the government. Ramana commented that he was not a “sophisticated speaker” in English as he had learnt the language only from Class 8.
The comment was in response to Tushar Mehta’s clarification that he was not even remotely suggesting that only farmers burning stubble were responsible for the air pollution in the National Capital Region (NCR).
“Unfortunately I am not a sophisticated speaker. This is my drawback as I learnt English in Class 8. I don’t have good English for expressing words. I studied law in the English language,” the chief justice told Mehta, who was appearing for the Centre.
“The language in which our response as lawyers is taken might send the wrong message which was not the intention,” Mehta had said. He said he too had learnt his English in Class 8 and studied till graduation in Gujarati medium. “We are sailing in the same boat. My law was in English medium,” Mehta said.
(Manas Dasgupta)