Is “Your Ladyship” gender discriminatory and “Delhi Culture”? This P&H HC judge thinks so

The Punjab & Haryana High Court witnessed a very interesting exchange yesterday between Justice Daya Chaudhary and Advocate General Atul Nanda.

The discussion pertained to the use of Your Ladyship by the Advocate General to address the judge. It happened during the hearing of a case relating to the appointment of Chairperson of Punjab Human Rights Commission.

The discussion was triggered by Nanda addressing Justice Chaudhary as “Your Ladyship”. According to a report in Dainik Bhaskar, Justice Chaudhary objected to the same saying that

“it is Delhi culture and won’t work in Punjab & Haryana High court.”

She also said that judges and advocates have no gender and they are just judges and advocates and are not to be addressed as ‘lady judges or lady advocates’.

Nanda then tried to trace some history regarding the usage of ‘Your ladyship’ but Justice Chaudhary remained adamant. She reportedly cut him short saying how he would feel if a female lawyer addresses him in court as ‘this man’ instead of ‘my lawyer friend’.

Justice Chaudhary also went to the extent of saying that she would not mind if lawyers did not address her as “Your Lordship”.

“I won’t mind even if you do not address me as ‘Your Lordship”.

Nanda relented and agreed to “delete the usage from his dictionary”.

The use of “Your Lordship’ to address judges has been a subject of discussion for sometime now. It is dubbed as a relic of colonial rule with demands for doing away with the same.

Justice Muralidhar’s court of Delhi High Court has specific directions in the causelist not to address him as “My Lord” and “Your Lordship”.

In 2014, Supreme Court’s then Chief Justice HL Dattu had said that “it is not mandatory” to address the Court as “Your Lordship”. While hearing a PIL seeking to do away with the practice of addressing judges as “Your Lordship” and “My Lord”, Justice Dattu had remarked,

“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”.