Rajasthan High Court does away with colonial relic, judges no longer 'lords'

The full court of the Rajasthan High Court on Monday decided to do away with the practice of using ‘My Lords’ and ‘Your Lordship’ for the judges. A notification issued by the High Court said that, “To honour the mandate of equality enshrined in the Constitution of India, the Full Court in its meeting dated 14.07.2019 has unanimously resolved to request the counsels and those who appear before the Court to desist from addressing the Hon’ble Judges as ‘My Lord’ and ‘Your Lordship’.”

For the uninitiated, in 2014, the Supreme Court had said that judges should be addressed in courts in a respectful and dignified manner and it is not compulsory to call them "my lord", "your lordship" or "your honour". "When did we say it is compulsory. You can only call us in a dignified manner," a bench comprising justices HL Dattu and SA Bobde observed during the hearing of a petition which said addressing judges as "my lord or your lordship" in courts is a relic of colonial era and a sign of slavery.

"To address the court what do we want. Only a respectable way of addressing. You call (judges) sir, it is accepted. You call it your honour, it is accepted. You call lordship it is accepted. These are some of the appropriate way of expression which are accepted," it said while refusing to entertain the PIL filed by 75-year-old advocate Shiv Sagar Tiwari. Moreover, the present Bar Council of India (BCI) rules also do not mandate the use of "My Lord" and "Your Lordship" when it comes to addressing the members of the Bench.