[dropcap]T[/dropcap]HE Rajasthan High Court on the administrative has decided to do away with a colonial tradition of addressing judges as ‘My Lord’ and ‘Your Lordship’.
A full court of the Rajasthan High Court led by the Chief Justice Ravendra Bhat unanimously decided in a meeting held on July 14, 2019, that lawyers and those who appear before the court would desist from addressing the judges as “My Lord” and “Your Lordship”.
This decision has been taken to honour the mandate of equality enshrined in the Constitution of India, read the notice issued by the Rajasthan High Court.
Pertinently, the Bar Council of India’s (BCI) Rules does not mandate the addressing of the judges as “My Lord” and “Your Lordship”.
The Rule provides:
“To address the Court consistent with the obligation of the Bar to show a respectful attitude towards the Court and bearing in mind the dignity of Judicial Office, the form of address to be adopted whether in the Supreme Court, High Courts or Subordinate Courts should be as follows: “Your Honour” or “Hon’ble Court” in Supreme Court & High Courts and in the Subordinate Courts and Tribunals it is open to the Lawyers to address the Court as “Sir” or the equivalent word in respective regional languages”
Interestingly, the Explanation to the above Rule says“as the words ‘My Lord’ and ‘Your Lordship’ are relics of Colonial post, it is proposed to incorporate the above rule showing respectful attitude to the Court”.
In 2014, a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) was filed in the Supreme Court seeking to do away with the practice of addressing the judges as “My Lord” and “Your Lordship”. While dismissing the PIL, Justices H L Dattu and S A Bobde had verbally pointed out that it was not compulsory to address the judges as “My Lord”, “Your Lordship” or even “Your Honour”.
