The Complete List Of Archaic Urdu And Persian Words Being Dropped By Delhi Police From FIRs And Chargesheets

In 2015, a public interest litigation (PIL) was filed in the Delhi high court seeking directions to the police to replace archaic and difficult words of Urdu and Persian languages with simpler words.

The PIL, filed by advocate Amit Sahni, submitted that cops are especially made to undergo training in Urdu and Persian words at Police Training College. 

The PIL stated, “It is not only cumbersome for Delhi police officers, who have to learn these archaic Urdu/Persian words, but also for accused/counsels and even judicial officers to learn these words in order to understand the proceedings of police.”

The PIL said that replacing the archaic terms with simpler words would not only be convenient for everyone concerned but reduce burden on training cops for it. 

The petitioner moved the court after his presentations to the government evoked no response. 

The court then issued notices to the Centre and Delhi police for response.

In their response, the Delhi police told the high court that replacing the words was a difficult task for them and unnecessary. The police response stated, “The words used are neither archaic nor difficult but on other hand replacement of these words in Hindi as suggested in the petition would create a lot of difficulties, both for litigants and the lawyers.”

Another PIL in the matter was filed in 2018, by Vishalakshi Goel.

In August 2019, the high court directed the police to explain the use of the archaic terms when the same were not being used by complainants. The court said, “Too much flowery language, the meaning of which is to be found out by a dictionary, should not be used. An FIR should be in the words of the complainant.”

In November that year, the Deputy Commissioner of Police issued a circular, asking officials to use simple and comprehensible words while filing FIRs. The circular contained a list of 383 Urdu and Persian words that were to be avoided and replaced with simpler Hindi or English words.

Yesterday, the police issued a circular reiterating the earlier instructions. Several publications however reported the development as the first step by Delhi police to replace the archaic vocabulary.

Below is the complete list of the words given in the circular, along with their simpler alternatives.