Government considering changing names of High Courts

NEW DELHI: The government today said that it had received proposals to change the names of Bombay, Calcutta and Madras High Courts to Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai High Courts respectively and was considering making the changes.

Replying to a question, Law Minister Salman Khurshid told Rajya Sabha that "the proposals to change the names of 'Bombay High Court' as the Mumbai High Court, the Calcutta High Court as the 'Kolkata High Court', the 'Madras High Court'as the Chennai High court have been received."

"They are all under consideration," Khurshid said. In response to another question, Khurshid said there were six vacancies for judges in the Supreme Court as on March 2012. The sanctioned strength of judges in the SC was 31, the law minister said.

There also is a vacancy of 270 judges in high courts all across the country, Khurshid said.

The Law minister also said that Government intended to pursue the formation of an All India Judicial Service (AIJS) for which the constitution also had been amended in 1977.

"The consensus on having an AIJS has not been possible as 7 out of the 20 states and 11 out of 17 state High Courts from whom comments were received have not supported the proposal," Khurshid said.

The Law Minister, however, said that the government "intends to pursue it by offering a more plausible and acceptable formulation of AIJS."