my Lord

A 75-year-old lawyer petitioned the Supreme Court to abolish the custom of addressing judges as “my lord” and “your lordship” as being “against the dignity of the country”, reported the PTI.

Shiv Sagar Tiwari said that “using the word My Lord and Your Lordship which is symbol of slavery should be strictly prohibited to be used in the courts throughout India as it is against the dignity of the country”.

He also submitted that the Bar Council of India has already passed a resolution in 2006 saying that nobody will address the court in India as My Lord and Your Lordship but it is not being followed.

The bench of Chief Justice P Sathasivam and Justice Ranjan Gogoi said it could not issue a direction to prevent these term from being used and questioned whether any court insisted on it, as the petitioner claimed that one of his Supreme Court cases was dismissed because he did not use the honorific. Gogoi then recused himself from the case, which is now up for re-listing.