Chennai: With its move to rename the Madras High Court to reflect the current name of the metropolis virtually in limbo, the Narendra Modi Government is set to begin a dialogue with the Tamil Nadu Government which wants the judicial institution to be named after the state.
Law Minister Ravishankar Prasad is likely to hold talks with the top brass of the Tamil Nadu Government since acceding to the demands of the state would require an amendment to the High Courts (Alternation of Names) Bill, 2016, which has been introduced in Parliament.
“We will talk to the state government (on the issue of renaming the Madras High Court as Tamil Nadu High Court). We will have a dialogue with and see what emerges out of the meeting,” a senior official of the Union Law Ministry said.
The Union Cabinet had on July 5 approved the Bill that seeks to rename the Madras, Bombay and Calcutta High Courts to reflect the current names of the cities they are located and subsequently tabled the Bill in Parliament. But, in a new twist to the issue, the Tamil Nadu Assembly had on August 1 passed a unanimous resolution that the Madras High Court be renamed as Tamil Nadu High Court and not as High Court of Chennai.
Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa also wrote a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi demanding that the High Court be renamed as Tamil Nadu High Court. And the Government did not take up the Bill for discussion and subsequent passing in the session.“After a detailed discussion, the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly unanimously passed a resolution (today), to call upon the Government of India to move necessary amendments to the Bill introduced in the Lok Sabha so as to rename the High Court of Madras as the High Court of TN,” the Chief Minister had said in her letter. Sources said since the opinion of people is overwhelmingly in favour of renaming the High Court as Tamil Nadu High Court, the Centre will go through the dialogue process before taking any decision. “Though it has been decided to hold talks with the TN government, the level at which the dialogue will be launched is yet to be decided,” the source said.
