Odisha HC Chief Justice asks lawyers not to use ‘My Lord’, ‘Your Honour’

Cuttack: Taking a step towards reformation in age-old judicial practice, Orissa High Court Chief Justice S. Muralidhar asked the lawyers not to address the judges as ‘My Lord’, ‘Your Lordship’ or ‘Your Honour’.

“All counsel and parties-in-person are requested to try and avoid addressing the judges of this bench as ‘My Lord’, ‘Your Lordship’, ‘Your Honour’ or with the prefix ‘Hon’ble’. Any other form of address, consistent with the decorum of the court, including ‘Sir’ should suffice,” said a note enclosing a list of business for January 3, 2022 (Monday) for hearing by two-judge bench comprising Chief Justice S. Muralidhar and Justice RK Pattnaik.

During his career as the judges in other high courts in the country, Justice Muralidhar has been urging the lawyers not to use the terms such as ‘My Lord’ or ‘Your Lordship’ in their address.

In 2009, Justice Muralidhar had asked the lawyers in the Delhi High Court not to address him as ‘Your Lordship’. In the Punjab and Haryana High Court in 2020, he also appealed to the counsels to avoid using such terms.

Earlier in 2020, the then Chief Justice of Calcutta High Court Justice Thottathil B. Nair Radhakrishnan had appealed to all judiciary officers in West Bengal and Andaman & Nicobar Islands to address him as ‘Sir’ instead of ‘My Lord’ or ‘Lordship’, the terms that have been used in judiciary to address the judges.