Court speech: Verdict reserved on how to address judges

Petitioner asked court to stop use of ‘colonial-era language’.

LAHORE:

Justice Nasir Saeed Sheikh of the Lahore High Court (LHC) on Thursday reserved judgment on a petition challenging the use of “My Lord” in addressing superior court judges and bowing to them.

The judge reserved the judgment after hearing the arguments by Advocate AK Dogar.

On October 20, 2011, Justice Sheikh Azmat Saeed had observed that the British era had ended and the practice of addressing judges as “My Lord” must be stopped.

The petitioner submitted that on November 6, 1980, presidential order number 15 in 1980 was promulgated by the then president of Pakistan after a meeting attended by the all superior court chief justices. He said para 4 of the order read: “The use of the expressions My Lord and Your Lordship in relation to a judge shall be discontinued and he shall only be addressed as Sir, Janab-i-wala or Janab-i-aali or will be referred to Mr Justice in judgments and correspondences.”

He said he had asked other lawyers to stop this but the lawyers continued to do so. He said addressing judges as “My Lord” was a colonial era relic.

Judges in US were not addressed as “My Lord,” he said. He argued that the practice was also un-Islamic and a violation of Article 14 of the Constitution which laid down that the dignity of man be preserved as a fundamental right.

The petitioner asked the court to issue directions to the federal and provincial governments, the Pakistan Bar Council, Punjab Bar Council, the Lahore High Court Bar Association and the Lahore Bar Association to respect the presidential order restraining lawyers from using “My Lord” and bowing in front of judges.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 7^th, 2012.