NEW DELHI: Chief Justice of India S A Bobde on Thursday said judges have long got out of the colonial vestige of being referred to as ‘My Lords’ and no one was compelled to address them as such. Petitioner Abhishek Mishra had a lot to complain about — from the lethargy of the SC registry in listing his petition to lack of mechanism and procedure to enable a petitioner to seek audience with the CJI for urgent listing.
The CJI said, "Urgent hearings cannot be granted on the basis of the health condition of the petitioner's relative. You seem to have a problem with everything, including your advocate. You have a problem in addressing the judges as 'Lordship'. Is anyone compelling you to address judges as 'Lordship'?"
This is a reiteration of what an SC bench of Justices H L Dattu and Bobde had said on January 6, 2014. The bench had said judges should be addressed in courts in a respectful and dignified manner and it was not compulsory to address them as ‘My Lord’, ‘Your Lordship’ or ‘Your Honour’. "When did we say it is compulsory? You can only address us in a dignified manner," Justices Dattu and Bobde had observed during the hearing of a petition which had complained that addressing judges as ‘My Lord or Your Lordship’ in courts was a relic of the colonial era and a sign of slavery.