All Courts Other Than High Court To Be Addressed As "District Judiciary" And Not "Subordinate Judiciary": Madhya Pradesh High Court

The Full Court meeting of the Court further resolved that all courts other than the High Court shall be addressed as "Trial Courts" and not "Subordinate Courts"-

The Hon'ble Chief Justice and Hon'ble Judges of the High Court of Madhya Pradesh in the Full Court meeting held on 15.12.2022, resolved that "All Courts other than the High Court shall hereinafter be referred to as the "district judiciary" and not as "subordinate judiciary" and that all Courts other than the High Court shall be referred to as the "trial Courts" and not as "subordinate Courts." Therefore, all concerned are hereby informed, accordingly.

The Madhya Pradesh High Court is the second High Court in the country to pass such a resolution. Earlier the Himachal Pradesh High Court had passed a resolution to replace the word Subordinate Courts with District Courts. Under the aegis of the then Acting Chief Justice, Justice Ravi Malimath, Himachal Pradesh High Court passed a resolution on 02.08.2021, thereby replacing the terms "Subordinate Judiciary" with "District Judiciary" and the term "Subordinate Court" with "Trial Court"

It is notable that CJI Chandrachud had mentioned during a program last month that we should not call our district judiciary as subordinate judiciary.

Speaking at a felicitation function organized by the Supreme Court Bar Association, CJI Chandrachud had said: "I think we have fostered a culture of subordination. We call our district judiciary a subordinate judiciary. I express disagreement to address district judges as subordinate judges. I make a conscious effort not to address them because they are not subordinates, they belong to the district judiciary."