In the Parliament’ s upcoming Winter session, a new bill seeking the name change of the iconic high courts of Madras, Calcutta and Bombay might be introduced. The old bill has some problems, and a fresh one needs to be introduced in the Parliament, PTI reported. It must be noted that the High Court (Alteration of Names) Bill, 2016, was introduced in the Lok Sabha on July 19, 2016, to change the names of Calcutta, Madras and Bombay High Courts to Kolkata, Chennai and Mumbai High Courts, respectively.
In a written reply in the Lok Sabha in December 2016, Minister of State for Law P P Chaudhary had said the old bill would have to be revised and a new bill introduced. “The central government has sought views from the state governments concerned and the respective high courts for finalising a fresh bill. No time frame can be fixed for finalising of the fresh bill and its introduction in Parliament,” he had said.
A senior Law Ministry functionary said, “no forward movement” has been made in this regard and the fresh bill was unlikely to be brought in the Winter Session beginning December 11.
Meanwhile, the Tamil Nadu government has asked the Centre to rename the Madras High Court to ‘High Court of Tamil Nadu’ instead of ‘High Court of Chennai’ as proposed in the bill. While the West Bengal government wants the Calcutta High Court to be renamed as Kolkata High Court, the high court has itself “not agreed for a revised nomenclature”.
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 and Madras. It was formally opened on July 1, 1862.
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