"Use 'sir' to address the Court, we are comfortable with 'sir'": Madras High Court says 'Your Lordship' not mandatory

The hearing in a SARFAESI case today led the Madras High Court today to orally assure that lawyers may address judges as "sir", in place of honorifics such as "My Lord" and "Your Lordship."

The observation came after lawyer addressed the Bench of Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee and Justice Senthilkumar Ramamoorthy as "My Lordship" instead of the correct form - "Your Lordship".

Chief Justice Banerjee corrected the counsel, pointing out that it would be incorrect to use the phrase "My Lordship."

"You can use ... or 'sir, whatever is fine. But it’s either 'My Lord' or 'Your Lordship'," he observed.

The lawyer offered his apologies, in turn, although he accidentally used 'My Lordship' again.

The Chief Justice proceeded to assure the counsel that the Court is comfortable with being addressed as 'sir.'

"Use 'sir', we are comfortable with 'sir'", Chief Justice Banerjee reiterated.

Several Judges in other High Courts have also indicated that they have no objection to abandoning the use of colonial-era honorifics when it comes to addressing the Court.

Recently, Justice Jyoti Mulimani of the Karnataka High Court requested all counsel to address her simply as "Madam" through a note added to her causelist.

In April this year, Justice Krishna Bhat of the High Court requested lawyers appearing before his court to avoid using terms such as "Lordship" Or "My Lord" to address the judges on the Bench. Justice Bhat further suggested that lawyers could use phrases such as "sir", which is consistent with the dignity of the Court under Indian circumstances.

Justice S Muralidhar, currently Chief Justice of Orissa High Court, also follows the practice of asking lawyers not to address him as 'My Lord' or 'Your Lordship'.

Last year, former Calcutta High Court Chief Justice Thottathil B Radhakrishnan had urged all officers of the District Judiciary, including members of the Registry, to address the Chief Justice only as “Sir” instead of “My Lord” or “Lordship” in conformity with the applicable judicial and administrative precedents.

In 2019, a Full Court of the Rajasthan High Court resolved to do away with the practice of referring to judges as “My Lord” and “Your Lordship”.

A similar observation was made by the Supreme Court itself in 2014. A PIL moved by an advocate, Shiv Sagar Tiwari to do away with the practice of addressing judges as “Your Lordship” and “My Lord”, had prompted a Bench of Justices HL Dattu and SA Bobde to point out that it was not compulsory to address the Court as “My Lord”, “Your Lordship” or even “Your Honour”.

While dismissing the PIL, the Bench said,

“When did we say it is compulsory? You can only call us in a dignified manner…. “How can this negative prayer be accepted by us? Don’t address us as “lordship”. We don’t say anything. We only say address us respectfully.”