‘Honourable’ prefix inappropriate for bureaucrats: Allahabad HC

Prayagraj: The Allahabad High Court questioned the use of the term ‘honourable’ for bureaucrats and state government officials, asking the Uttar Pradesh revenue department’s principal secretary to file a personal affidavit disclosing the authority of law that justifies the phrasing.

A bench comprising Justice Ajay Bhanot and Justice Garima Prashad passed the order hearing a petition filed by Yogesh Sharma, when it asked why “Additional Commissioner, Appeal” is referred to as “Hon’ble Additional Commissioner, Appeal”.

“This is a subtle but certain way to diminish the status of constitutional authorities and courts. There is a recent trend where the ranks of various state officials from the lowest to the highest levels are being preceded with ‘Honourable’ in correspondence as well as orders,” the court observed.

Stating that the prefix has to be used only for ministers and other sovereign functionaries, it said, “The same does not hold good for bureaucrats or officials of the state government.”

“This court notices that in official correspondence, there is a regular reference to different ranks of officials of the state with the word ‘Honourable’ appended to their name. In this case, the divisional commissioner of Kanpur has been referred to by the collector, Etawah, as ‘Honourable’ commissioner,” the bench said.

The court directed the principal secretary to apprise the court if there was any protocol about officials of the state who are entitled to prefixes or have the word ‘Honourable’ affixed along with their designations or names.

The court listed the matter afresh for December 19.