Cities such as Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai and Prayagraj have dropped their colonial and Mughal-era names, but the high courts of these places are still officially known by their previous names. So when a senior advocate who argued before the Supreme Court on Tuesday referred to the orders of the “Chennai High Court”, Justice DY Chandrachud immediately interrupted him and said “Mr. Counsel, it is still called the Madras High Court”. is.” The senior counsel realized his mistake and corrected himself.
Many cities of the country were named by the British or the Mughal rulers during their colonial period. Many of them have been replaced by the country’s federal and state governments, although their old names are still in circulation and on record along with constitutional bodies. Some of these are Bombay, Calcutta, Madras, Allahabad, Bangalore, Trivandrum, Guwahati etc.
These names have now been replaced by older names for their historical and religious contexts. For example, Bombay was renamed to Mumbai, Calcutta to Kolkata, Madras to Chennai, Allahabad to Prayagraj, Bangalore to Bangalore, Trivandrum to Thiruvananthapuram and Guwahati to Guwahati.
In these cities, their old names are being written along with universities, high courts and other constitutional institutions. Voices are being raised with these institutions also for naming new names, but no decision has been taken on this yet.
Justice DY Chandrachud is known for his strong remarks. Last year, he made an important comment on the misuse of the UAPA Act. He had said that no law should be misused to suppress the dissent of the citizens. Justice Chandrachud’s remarks came to the fore during an event on legal relations between India and the United States of America. He said that criminal law, including anti-terrorism law, should not be used to suppress dissatisfaction or harassment of citizens.