The Central Government has decided to change the names of three of India’s oldest high courts. In a cabinet meeting held on Tuesday, soon after several new faces joined Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Council of Ministers, the central government decided to change the names of the Calcutta High Court to Kolkata High Court, Bombay High Court to Mumbai High Court and Madras High Court to Chennai High court, keeping up with the changed names of the cities in which they are located.
The original names of Bombay, Calcutta High Courts may soon be a part of the history. Answering to a question asked in the Lok Sabha, Union Minister of Law and Justice DV Sadananda Gowda in a written reply told the house that re-naming of these three High Courts are under consideration of the Government of India.
Minister told the house that the state governments of Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal have sent proposals to it for changing the name of ‘Bombay High Court’ to ‘Mumbai High Court’, ‘Madras High Court’ to Chennai High Court’ and ‘Calcutta High Court’ to ‘Kolkata High Court’ respectively.
He further said that a suitable legislation in the Parliament to consider such requests is under consideration of the Central Government.
These three High Courts were created by Queen Victoria of Great Britain during the British rule in India by Letters Patent in 1865. The Letters patents were issued by the Queen after the Parliament of the United Kingdom passed the Indian High Courts Act of 1861 (24 & 25 Vict. c. 104) and authorised the Crown to create High Courts in India
The Calcutta High Court has the distinction of being the first high court and one of the three chartered high courts to be set up in India, along with the high courts of Bombay, Madras. It was formally opened on July 1, 1862. Earlier, the government had planned to vest the President with powers to rename a high court in consultation with the Governor, the Chief Minister and the Chief Justice of that state. But the idea has been shelved. The government now plans to consider such demands of change in name on a case-by-case basis, sources said.
‘Indian High Court Act’ of 1861 vested in the Queen of England to issue letters patent to establish high courts of Calcutta, Madras and Bombay. The Bombay High Court was inaugurated on August 14, 1862. The high court today has three benches at Nagpur, Aurangabad and Goa. Bombay HC is one of a few institutions in Maharashtra that continue to carry the old name of the city.
The state government renamed Bombay as Mumbai in 1995 and all institutions under it altered names accordingly. The Madras High Court, which came into being around the same time, has one bench in Madurai.
Besides demands from Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu governments, various organisations too have been pressing for renaming the two high courts.
The names of cities where these High Court have been established were changed from ‘Bombay’ to ‘Mumbai’, ‘Madras’ to ‘Chennai’ and ‘Calcutta’ to ‘Kolkata’ in 1995, 1996 and 2011 respectively. Since then several demands have been made by the locals for a change in names of these three High Courts.
BY: PALAK GOEL
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