Pay highest respect to judges: Allahabad HC administration tells its employees

The Allahabad high court administration has asked its employees to pay highest respect to judges while on the court premises by restricting their movement whenever they see “their Lordships” moving through the corridor to sit in the court or when they retire to their chambers.

Taking serious view of the practice of officers not stopping while judges are passing through the galleries of the high court, the administration said now they would be in “serious trouble”.

In a notice issued by the registrar general, it has been made clear that any deviation in this regard shall be viewed seriously.

As per the tradition of the Allahabad high court, everyone used to stop, as a mark of highest respect to judges, whenever the latter passed through the galleries of high court for sitting in court or retiring to their chambers. However, of late it has been noticed by the high court administration that this “graceful” tradition is being ignored, read the order. According to the administration this is a clear case of disrespect to judges. “Officers of high court must give due respect to judges and there is nothing wrong in passing such direction,” said advocate Sujan Singh Chauhan. Another advocate, Raghvendra Sharan Tiwari said, “We lawyers do stop when a judge passes through corridor and other staff should also do the same.”

As per tradition, lawyers and officials not just stop when a judge is seen moving but also bow before them when they pass through.