Cabinet nod to renaming high courts

The Union Cabinet on Tuesday approved the law and justice ministry proposal to rename the Bombay and Madras high courts through an an act of Parliament to correspond to the present names of the cities of Mumbai and Chennai, respectively.

The move comes after demands to rename the high courts after the metros were rechristened in the 1990s. During the Cabinet briefing, Union communications minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said the name of the Calcutta high court, too, would be changed to Kolkata HC. However, an official released issued later mentioned only the Madras and the Bombay high courts.

The proposal of the Department of Justice is to bring a bill — The High Courts (Alteration of Names) Bill, 2016 — to rename the two high courts established in the 1860s under the Indian High Court Act of 1861. But, at present, there is no Central law under which the proposal to change the names of these HCs can be addressed. There have also been demands to rename the Calcutta high court.