High Court stays Amritsar DC order to mall on dropping ‘Ambarsar’ from name

Chandigarh, June 29

What’s in a name? Going by an order passed by the Amritsar Deputy Commissioner — everything. The officer has asked VR Ambarsar Mall to remove ‘Ambarsar’ from its name. The logic: the city’s name is ‘Amritsar’ in government notifications and changing nomenclature to “Ambarsar” was wrong. The matter was brought to the Punjab and Haryana High Court’s notice after the mall, through senior advocate Chetan Mittal, along with Udit Garg and Shifali Goyal, challenged the order passed by the DC.

Taking up the petition by Alena Ventures Pvt Ltd, Justice Lisa Gill of the High Court issued notice of motion and stayed the operation of the impugned order dated April 23. Appearing before the Bench, Mittal contended the petitioner had no intention to hurt religious sentiments of anyone. The provision of law under which purported action has been taken by the authorities was also unknown. Moreover, the order was never conveyed to the petitioner.

Mittal added Amritsar was colloquially known as Ambarsar. The word was also used in movies and songs. A market was also known as Ambarsar Bazaar. Quoting examples, Mittal submitted “Ambarsariya di Hatti” and “Ambarsar Badiyaan” were used at various places. There was no bar in using Ambarsar as per the Emblems and Names Act (Prevention of Improper Use) Act, 1950.

Mittal said there were various news articles and social media pages claiming that “Ambarsar” denoted an “emotion”. It was not just a word. Besides, various cities were referred to by colloquial names such as Benaras and Dilli... even under various statutes, there is no bar in naming or using the word Ambarsar. — TNS