The Bombay High Court may soon be the Mumbai High Court if the proposal filed by the Maharashtra Government to the Central Government goes through.

An application filed by Subash Chandra Agarwal, the serial Right to Information (RTI) applicant, before the Union Ministry of Law, has revealed that they are considering proposals filed by four states to rename their High Courts.

Proposals are also pending to change the names of the High Courts at Guwahati, Chennai and Kolkata. These courts still retain the old name of the respective city and go by the name of Gauhati, Madras and Calcutta High Courts.

Mumbai and Chennai were renamed in 1996, while Kolkata was renamed in 2001. The Calcutta High Court [pictured] was established in 1861, making it the oldest High Court in the country, while the High Courts at Bombay and Madras were established in 1862. Renamed as the Guwahati High Court in 1971, it was established as the High Court of Assam and Nagaland in 1948 and operated out of Shillong for a brief period of 6 months, before shifting to Guwahati.

Agrawal had also queried whether the High Courts could frame different rules for processing the RTI applications sent to them. However, the Ministry has forwarded the specific query to the Department of Personnel and Training for action since they are not concerned with framing the RTI Rules.