Advocate moves Supreme Court to do away with ‘Your Lordship’; Alleges matter dismissed for not addressing the Court as ‘Your Lordship’

The Supreme Court is seized of another interesting challenge to the norms and standards in advocacy reflecting the alleged colonial hangover. A Public Interest litigation (PIL) has now been filed by Advocate Shiv Sagar Tiwari (Petitioner) in the Supreme Court seeking to do away with the practice of addressing judges as “Your Lordship” and “My Lord”.

The Petitioner has contended that the use of “Your Lordship” and “My Lord” to address judges are relics of British colonial past and amounted to a “disgrace and dishonour of the country”.

He has also placed reliance on Chapter III A of the Bar Council of India Rules which provides that the words “Your Honour and “Hon’ble Court” shall be used by the advocates in the Supreme Court and High Courts with the freedom to use “Sir” in subordinate courts and tribunals. Tiwari has stated that Justice S Murlidhar of Delhi High Court had already acted upon this and affixed a notice in the High Court to the effect that no advocate shall address the Court as “Your Lordship” or “My Lord”.

Based on the above grounds he has prayed for issuance of writ of Mandamus,

“directing all judges of the Supreme Court, High Courts and other Judicial Forums not to accept the word[s] My Lord or Your Lordship addressed by anyone appearing before them.”

When the matter came up for hearing today before a Division Bench comprising of Chief Justice P Sathasivam and Justice Ranjan Gogoi, Tiwari alleged that one of his cases was dismissed by another Bench because he failed to address the Court as “Your Lordship”. He also stated that Justice Gogoi was incidentally part of that Bench. Justice Gogoi then said that he would not hear the matter and the Chief Justice promptly directed the matter to be listed before another Bench.

This is not the first time such petitions have been filed challenging practices impacting the legal community. While the matter challenging the practice of having Advocates on Record is still pending before the Supreme Court,  Kerala High Court had issued notice to the Centre and the Bar Council of India in a PIL seeking to do away with the present dress code for the advocates.