Buddha nod for renaming Calcutta HC

One of the last signs of the Raj is going to be removed. The Calcutta High Court,born as High Court of Judicature at Fort William on July 1,1862,and the oldest in the country,is going to be renamed Kolkata High Court. The Union Law Ministry has written to the state government whether it was interested in re-christening the high court after the name of the city and the matter was referred to Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee. He gave his nod last Friday and the matter is going to be sent back to the Union ministry soon.

In fact,the Union Law Ministry sent the proposal to the state after it received two proposals from the Maharashtra Government and the Tamil Nadu Government to change the names of the Bombay High Court and Madras High Court to Mumbai High Court and Chennai High Court,respectively. Since a law has to be enacted,the Union ministry wanted to know whether the Bengal Government too was willing to get the name of the Calcutta HC changed.

In fact the Calcutta,Bombay and Madras high courts are called the three Chartered High Courts of the country.

If the name is changed there will be no effect on the powers and jurisdiction of the high court, Ravi Lal Maitra,Minister for Law and Judicial Affairs,said.