By IANS,
New Delhi: The Supreme Court Monday declined to entertain a plea that had sought the court’s direction that lawyers should not address judges as “Lordship”, saying it was for the members of the bar to change their habits.
A bench of Justice H.L.Dattu and Justice S.A. Bobde, while declining the plea for a direction that judges should be addressed as “Your Honour” or “Hon’ble Court” as provided under the Bar Council of India Rules and not as “Lordship”, asked petitioner, advocate Shiv Sagar Tiwari, to instead persuade his fraternity to change their habit of addressing the court.
Tiwari wanted the enforcement of 2006 Rules of the BCI which said that judges should be addressed as “Your Honour”.
“We are asking you is there is a provision in the Bar Council of India Rules that mandates the lawyers to address the judges in a way,” the court said, declining the plea by Tiwari who wanted that the colonial practice of addressing the judges as “Lordship” should be shed.
Pressing his point, Tiwari told the court that when there is a dress code that mandates that a lawyers should be dressed in black robes with a white shirt while appearing before the court, then why cannot another rule by the same Bar Council be enforced.
Not persuaded by the submission, the court declined to entertain the plea and dismissed it.