The translation of the age-old Code of Comunidades from Portuguese into English has been welcomed by some as fulfillment of a long-felt need, but a section feels it is marred by some errors, and being an official version, it needs to be examined from the legal context.

The Portuguese government had officially gazetted the Codigo das Comunidades, as the Code is referred to in Portuguese, on April 15, 1961.

On July 19, this year, the government notified in the official gazette a translation of the original Code done by former additional collector of Goa, Egipsy Noronha Rodrigues, and reviewed by senior advocate, Manohar Usgaonkar.

“The translation was long overdue after the official gazetting of the Code in 1961,” says John Philip Pereira, attorney of the Nagoa comunidade.

“The Code had never been officially translated, but amendments had been carried out, due to which I had filed a petition in the high court questioning how legislators could carry out amendments to the Code without understanding it,” he adds. More.

See: Times of India