SC refuses to entertain PIL that wanted ‘India’ replaced with ‘Bharat’

Tribune News Service
New Delhi, June 3

The Supreme Court on Wednesday refused to entertain a Public Interest Litigations that wanted ‘India’ to be replaced with ‘Bharat’ as the name of the country, saying it was already there in the Constitution.

“We can’t do that. India is already called Bharat in the Constitution,” a Bench led by Chief Justice of India SA Bobde told petitioner’s counsel Ashwin Vaish.

Vaish argued that ‘India’ was derived from Greek word ‘Indica’ and it the name didn’t originate in the country. Renaming it to Bharat will help the country get over its colonial past, he said on behalf of petitioner Namaha.

Seventy years after the Constitution of India came into force, a PIL in the Supreme Court wants ‘India’ to be replaced with ‘Bharat’ or ‘Hindustan’ as the name of the country, saying it will “instill a sense of pride in our own nationality”. 

However, the Bench wasn’t impressed. The petition should be treated by the government as representation from the petitioner, it said.

At present, Article 1 of the Constitution states, “India, that is Bharat, shall be a Union of States.”

However, in another case, the top court asked the Centre and Maharashtra Government to respond to a PIL filed by retired labour court judge VP Patil seeking to rename Bombay High Court to Maharashtra High Court.