Don't use ‘My Lord’, ‘Your Lordship': Raj HC to lawyers

Citing equality as the main reason, the Rajasthan High Court on Monday asked lawyers to stop the practice of addressing judges as “my lord” and “your lordship” during hearings.

Following a Full Court meeting held on Sunday, a notification was issued by the Rajasthan High Court Registrar General to “honour the mandate of equality enshrined in the Constitution”.

"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". The decision was unanimously taken in a Full Court meeting on July 14.

The lawyer association of Rajasthan has welcomed the decision. "It is a positive decision and much relevant in the present times," Satyendra Raghav Additional Advocate General, Rajasthan High Court told DH.

The move of Rajasthan high court was hailed on social media just after the notice was circulated. Lawyer and legal activist Indira Jaising wrote on her twitter handle, "Historic decision of the Full Court led by Chief Justice Ravindra Bhatt, hope this puts an end to sycophancy at the Bar, all other courts must follow beginning with the Supreme Court of India".

A similar observation was made by the Supreme Court in January 2014, in which it had said that for lawyers it is not mandatory to address judges as “My Lord”, “Your Lordship” or “Your Honour”. A bench of justices H L Dattu and S A Bobde had observed that it was a colonial practice and must be done away with.