New Delhi: Answering the long pending demand of states to bring the names of their High Courts in line with the present names of the cities in which they lie, the NDA government today renamed three top HC's of India dropping the colonial legacy still attached to their names.
The Bombay High Court is now Mumbai High Court, the Madras High Court is Chennai High Court and the Calcutta High Court will be known as Kolkata High Court.
Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, in a press conference post cabinet expansion, said,”From now on Calcutta High Court will be known as Kolkata HC, Bombay HC as Mumbai HC and Madras HC as Chennai HC.”
The Law Ministry had been working on a Bill to make the changes for a while as it said the High Courts will have to drop their old names as it involves technical issues such as statute books and the fact that they were established under the Indian High Court Act of 1861.
“We had earlier thought that vesting the President of India with the powers to change the names of the high courts through an executive order would simplify matters, but that did not seem feasible. Therefore, in the last six months, we have drafted a Bill that changes the name of these high courts,” a Law Ministry source had said.
The decision of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana governments on the relocation of the High Court of one the two States is also awaited by the Centre.
“As of now, it is the high court of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, and we are waiting for further word from both the governments,” a Law ministry official had said.
