A colonial legacy is fraught with implications since it is impervious to the changing mindscape of the modern era.
After Justice Daya Chaudhary, a Punjab and Haryana High Court judge, rebuked the Punjab Advocate General (AG) for addressing her as ‘Your Ladyship’, the AG, Atul Nanda, put out his side of the story on social media. Nanda said: “While titles are mostly gender-neutral, forms of direct address are gender-specific. Hence, the prefix title Justice before a judge’s name is gender-neutral.” What neither did, but should have done, was initiate a fresh debate on putting an end to an embarrassing Raj relic masquerading as propriety.
Having said that, the exchange between Chaudhary and Nanda should have been treated as an aside. Earlier instances too, such as former Chief Justice of India HL Dattu insisting in 2014 that “it is not mandatory” to address the court as “Your Lordship” had created disproportionate buzz. Invariably, the din over silly matters deflects attention from the genuine issues confronting the judiciary and the government.
The SC alone has a pendency of 60,000 cases while the cumulative figure of pending cases in India stood at over 30 million till December 2014. The government and the judiciary should find ways to bury their differences and work towards tackling this gigantic backlog that has affected the lives of citizens.
If justice delayed is justice denied, then the tardy and expensive process of seeking justice has defeated the very spirit of jurisprudence.
