Delhi: Centre, DMRC asked for stand on renaming station

Delhi High Court requests the Centre and DMRC to respond to a petition for renaming "Supreme Court" metro station to "Sarvoch Nyayalaya" in Hindi. Hearing set for Feb 19.

The Delhi High Court on Wednesday sought the Centre and the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) to state their stand on a petition seeking that the “Supreme Court” metro station be renamed in Hindi as “Sarvoch Nyayalaya”.

The petition, a public interest litigation (PIL) filed at a personal capacity, was filed by Umesh Sharma. (Biplov Bhuyan/HT PHOTO)

A bench of chief justice DK Upadhyaya and justice Tejas Karia issued notice and fixed February 19 as the next date of hearing. “Let appropriate instructions be sought by the counsel for respondents... as to why the name of the metro station cannot be inscribed as ‘Sarvoch Nyayalaya’ in Devanagari script,” said the bench.

The petition, a public interest litigation (PIL) filed at a personal capacity, was filed by Umesh Sharma, who contended that while the Central Secretariat metro station is designated as “Kendriya Sachivalaya” and the Delhi University metro station as “Delhi Vishwavidyalaya” in Hindi, the Supreme Court metro station retains an identical nomenclature in both Hindi and English.

He further submitted that, according to the Supreme Court’s official website, its Hindi name is “Bharat ka Sarvoch Nyayalaya,” and therefore the metro station’s Hindi inscription ought to reflect the same.

Sharma also placed before the court a communication from the Supreme Court administration to the DMRC proposing that the station, earlier known as Pragati Maidan, be renamed as “Supreme Court.”

The court sought the stand of the Centre and the DMRC on the plea and listed the matter for further hearing on February 19.