JUDICIARY AS DIVINE POWER

THE ADDRESS TO JUDGES AS 'MY LORD'

The judges in India is commonly addressed by the advocates as "My Lord" or "Your Lordship", which implies to a great extent, is divine the authority they enjoy. The word "lord" denotes the authority, superior to the human being, and in such context, denotes to the God almighty. 

Then the question arise, is that, are the judges God, or demi-Gods, enjoying any power, superior to the Human as a species! certainly that is far beyond imagination. But at times such addressing, and repeated one, causes some of the unconscious, elevation of self to such an imaginative level and to some of the cases, ends up in resultant arrogance. 

Then why the judges are so addressed? We inherited a judicial system, from the British heritage. Our present Judiciary is the continuation of British system which continued its customs and behaviors, even after independence, without putting it for any qualitative and logical tests. 

There were reasoning for the address of the judges as 'lord' in the British form of Governance. The sovereign power of the Great Britain, United Kingdom rests with the monarch, the King or the Queen, as the case may be. Hence it is Kingdom, not a Republic. All the authorities of law making, law implementing and law enforcing are concentrated with the monarchy.  The judges do derive their authority to discharge justice, as a representative of the Monarch, the Queen as of now. So the judges are addressed as a manner addressing the queen itself, in a manner befitting to the sovereign authority. Then the doubt arises, why it is addressed in a way as addressing to GOD!... The Queen derives authority from the God. Its the Queen, who rules the nation as a sovereign, who derives authority from the divine power, God, almighty. Hence the Queen or the King is consecrated by the Arch Bishop of Canterbury. The God delegates the power to the King through His representative, the Canterbury Arch Bishop,to consecrate the King/Queen to be sovereign and Rule the Nation/Kingdom. So the power enjoyed by Queen is divine in nature, and the delegated power, as such to the judges are also divine, qualifying for being addressed as 'lord'.  

But, when looking into our nation, we are secular, democratic, republic, not a theocratic monarchy or Kingdom. Our Constitution declares so. Our authorities are not derived from divine origin, but from the people, "we the people of India". The people of India are the sovereign, as we are in a democratic set up, not on a monarchy. Hence the president of India enjoys the power derived from the people of India, who elects him through representative voting system, and the power enjoyed by him is not of divine origin but off shoot of democratic process, making him disqualified to be addressed as 'lordship'. The judges are appointed by the President of India under his hand and seal, under his authority to discharge delegated authorities of the sovereign, the people of India. It has no reason to connect itself to the divine authority or to claim so is undemocratic and hence is violation of basic structure of Constitution of India. SO the very address of judges in India as 'lordship' or 'lord' is undemocratic and violative of secular features,as enshrined in the constitution, and further it is an insult to the people of India, who are the sovereign, at least on papers! 

..........Adv.A.C.Philip