Yes … My Lord
The Bar Council of India, the apex body of the lawyers in the country, adopted a resolution in April 2006 and added a new Rule 49(1) (j) in the Advocates Act. As per the rule, Judges need not be addressed as ‘Lords’ and lawyers can address the court as 'Your Honour' and refer to it as 'Honourable Court'. If it is a subordinate court, lawyers can use terms such as 'Sir' or any equivalent phrase in the regional language concerned. The resolution has since been circulated to all state councils and the Supreme Court for adoption, but over five years now, the resolution largely remains on paper. In response, the Kerala High Court Advocates Association in 2007 passed a resolution that judges of the Kerala High Court need not be addressed as ‘Lordships’; instead can be addressed as ‘Your Honour’ or ‘Sir’ . Recently, the Advocates Association of the Punjab and Haryana High Court also passed a resolution on similar lines. Newspaper reports suggest that Judges have been...