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No more Britisher ‘lordships’, P&H bar to call judges ‘your honour’

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The Punjab and Haryana Bar Association (PHBA) has resolved to dispense with the practice of addressing judges as “my lord” or “your lordship” because of the terms’ colonial associations, substituting the more liberal American title “your honour”.

PHBA is the second bar association to have passed such a resolution after the lawyer’s body of Kerala High Court unanimously decided to ban usage of the contentious title in 2007.

PHBA president Kulbir Singh Dhaliwal told media that all 4,500 bar association members had consented to endorse the Bar Council of India (BCI) resolution which was passed in 2006 for bringing about this change.

“The BCI, the apex body of lawyers in the country, had adopted a resolution in April 2006 and added a new rule 49(1)(j) in the Advocates' Act. According to the rule, lawyers can address the court as 'your honour' and refer to it as 'honourable court'. If it is a subordinate court, lawyers can use terms such as 'sir' or any equivalent phrase in the regional language,” reported the Times of India.

Photo by a.drian

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