Prefixing 'Hon'ble' For Bureaucrats A 'Subtle' Way To Diminish Status Of Constitutional Authorities, Courts: Allahabad HC

A Division Bench of Justice Ajay Bhanot and Justice Garima Prashad termed this 'trend' a "subtle but certain way to diminish the status of constitutional authorities and courts".

Briefly put, the HC was hearing a Criminal Writ Petition where the issue arose regarding the description of an Additional Commissioner, Appeal. The Bench noted that the officer was referred to as "Hon'ble Additional Commissioner, Appeal".

Taking a serious view of the matter, the HC directed the Principal Secretary, Department of State Taxes, Government of UP, to file a personal affidavit disclosing the authority of law under which an Additional Commissioner was referred to as 'Hon'ble'.

The Bench noted that this is a recent trend in which officials from the lowest to the highest levels of the state bureaucracy are addressed with the prefix 'Honourable' in both correspondence and official orders.

The bench clarified that the word Honourable has to be prefixed only in case of Hon'ble Ministers and other sovereign functionaries and not for the bureaucrats or officials of the State Government.

In this regard, the bench referred to a previous order passed by a Single Judge of the HC where, in a similar instance, the Collector, Etawah, had referred to the Divisional Commissioner of Kanpur as "Honourable Commissioner".

The Court in the earlier matter had also noted that while it is settled that 'Honourable' is to be prefixed for Ministers and sovereign functionaries, it was unclear if such protocol extended to Secretaries serving the State Government.

The matter has been listed for further hearing on December 19.