Abu Dhabi has decided to include Hindi as their third official language in its Courts, the other two languages are English and Arabic. This move was done to improve the access of justice in its courts.
The Judicial Department of Abu Dhabi said that it decided to extend the official languages as a lot of claims were being filed before them that stated Hindi should be part of the official language used in the courts along with English and Arabic during labor cases.
This move was aimed to help all the Hindi speakers to learn about the litigation procedures, rights, and duties in Abu Dhabi without having any language barriers, also, this was done to help facilitate registration procedures through their unified forms that are available on their official ADJD website.
In an official report, the population of UAE is estimated to be 5 million, where 2/3rd of these are immigrants. The Indian nationals in UAE are estimated to be around 2.6 million, this is 30% in the total population of the UAE and is the largest community present in the country.
Yousef Saeed Al Abri the undersecretary of ADJD, said that the adoption of the new language will help them increase the transference of their litigation procedures. The adoption of the new language will be seen in claim sheets, requests, and request forms.
Mr. Al Abri said: “This is in addition to facilitating registration procedures to the public through simplified and easy forms and raising litigants” legal awareness via interactive forms of the statements of claims, to ensure access to the legal materials related to the subject of the dispute.”
He also said that the adoption of the new languages came under the supervision of Sheik Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Presidential Affairs and ADJD Chairman.
Yousef Saeed Al Abri elaborated the adoption of the new language, he says that it is part of their new bilingual litigation system, the first phase was launched last year in November, and the adoption will allow the procedures to be translated if the defendant is an immigrant.
Yousef Saeed Al Abri said: “The foreign investor receives the case files translated, thus contributing to the provision of a global judicial service that meets the requirements of residents in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi.”