Rename courts

Sir — There was a move from the Union Government sometime in January 2015, to rename Bombay High Court and Madras High Court. But till now, the change has not been made. Even Calcutta High Court is to be renamed as Kolkata High Court. It is significant that except for these three High Courts at Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata respectively, all other High Courts have been named after the States of 

their jurisdiction. 

A Right to Information response had revealed that, while all the High Courts constituted after independence were named after their main States of jurisdiction, these three High Courts constituted by the British regime in the pre-independence era, continue to be named as per the British legacy (on the basis of cities of their existence.

The Union Government should end the British legacy by renaming Bombay, Madras and Calcutta High Courts now as Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal High Courts respectively, to bring uniformity in the system of naming High Courts after the names of States rather than on particular cities. The proposed legislation should incorporate the feature that the names of High Courts may be automatically changed with a change in the name of States (or cities) without needing further legislation.