HC stays order on name change of Amritsar mall

The court of justice Lisa Gill acted on the plea of VR Ambarsar Mall who had challenged the deputy commissioner order of April 23

The Punjab and Haryana high court on Tuesday stayed an order passed by the Amritsar district administration asking a shopping mall not to use the word Ambarsar in its name.

A response from the state government has been sought by October 10. (Representational photo)

The court of justice Lisa Gill acted on the plea of VR Ambarsar Mall who had challenged the deputy commissioner order of April 23. A response from the state government has been sought by October 10, while staying the impugned order.

As per the petitioner, it purchased “Trillium Mall” and renamed it as it became part of the Virtuous Retail Group. The name was changed to VR Ambarsar keeping in view the fact that it is a colloquial name of the city and is close to the hearts of its inhabitants. Initially, the mall received a complaint in July-August 2020, against using this name and subsequently, the complainant moved the district administration, which passed the order in question.

Senior advocate Chetan Mittal had told the court that the Amritsar city is colloquially known as Ambarsar. The word Ambarsar has also been used in various movies, shops, songs, etc. There is a market which is also known as Ambarsar Bazaar. Ambarsariya Di Hatti and Ambarsar Badiyaan have been used at various places and there is no bar in using the word Ambarsar as per the Emblems and Names Act (Prevention of Improper Use) Act, 1950, he had argued.

The court was further told that IK Gujral Punjab Technical University, Amritsar campus, which is a state university, has also referred that the city is colloquially known as Ambarsar. “There are various news articles and social media pages which claim that the word Ambarsar is an emotion and not just a word and they prefer to call it so. There are various cities with colloquial names like Benaras for Varanasi and Delhi is also known as Dilli,” he had told the court adding that the action did not mean that the city’s name has been changed.

The court was also told that there was nothing reflected in the order and the complainant – Jai Punjab Welfare Society, has referred in the complaint as hurting the religious sentiments. Otherwise, there is no such prohibition in any of the Acts. Using the name does not even hurt the religious sentiments, rather it is a traditionally, usually and commonly used name, it was argued.

In the order, the administration had said the name of the city is Amritsar in government notifications and changing nomenclature to Ambarsar is wrong.