Kathmandu, January 11:

Now, you do not need to address a judge as Shreeman.

You can call them mananiya nyayadheeshjyu (honourable judge) while pleading in a court of law or outside from the court.

The Nepal Bar Association, umbrella organisation of lawyers, today issued a circular to the lawyers to address the judges in a new jargon after holding consultations with Chief Justice Kedar Prasad Giri and Justices of the Supreme Court.

“The SC Justices agreed to be addressed as honourable judges in line with a proposal passed by the national conference of women lawyers in Butwal recently,” Mainali told this daily.

Mainali had placed the proposal before the judges’ meeting today during the oath-taking ceremony organised by CJ for newly appointed apex court justices Tahir Ali Ansari and Rajendra Prasad Koirala. “Since no law forced anyone to address us as Shreeman, other suitable terminology can be used to address us,” the justices told Mainali.

The women lawyers’ conference, held on December 29 and 30 in the presence of SC Justice Sharada Shrestha, had passed the proposal demanding replacement of the word Shreeman while addressing the judges. The conference had concluded that the word was nothing but an outcome of patriarchal society and a symbol of gender discrimination.

The use of the word Shreeman began after the establishment of Pradhan Nyayalaya (Supreme Court) in the country in 1951. “Even during the Rana regime, judges were not referred to as Shreeman,” Mainali claimed.

The word Shreeman is the translation of the British terminologies My Lord and Your Honour, which are used while addressing the judges. These terminologies are used in Indian courts, too. “Even in India, jurists have been pondering over replacing My Lord and Your Honour with some other terminologies because these terms were used to address the judges during the British rule in India,” Mainali added.

After the NBA circular, women rights lawyer, Sapana Pradhan Malla said this is an outcome of the movement of women lawyers and changing political situation in the country. “Replacing the word is not a huge change. The point is that the word Shreeman discriminates against women,” Malla said.

According to her, there were no women judges and lawyer when the word Shreeman was introduced in courts. “But we were humiliated sometime while addressing the judges as Shreeman as commoners though the judges were our husbands.” she said.