SC to hear plea seeking remaining India as Bharat

New Delhi, June 2: The Supreme Court of India will hear the petition filed before it seeking to drop the name ‘India’ and replace it with ‘Bharat’. The PIL was filed by a petitioner called ‘Namah’, reported ANI.

The SC bench comprising of Chief Justice S A Bobdae, Justice A S Bopanna, and Justice Hrishikesh Roy will be hearing the petition today. Under the COVID -19 restrictions, the apex court is hearing only urgent matters.

The petitioner in his plea stated that the name ‘India’ was given to us by foreigners and is a symbol of slavery. The Union Government has failed to do away with this symbol of slavery all these years. He also pointed to the earlier pleas seeking to change the name of the country from India to Bharat and the inaction of the government to do so, thus justifying his reason to approach the highest court.

However, on March 12, 2016, the Supreme Court had rejected a similar petition seeking to rename the country. The bench of Justice T S Thakur and Justice U U Lalit pointed to the ‘absurdity’ of the plea asking the petitioner, “Do you think we have no other work except dealing with emotional matters?”

The plea was submitted by Niranjan Bhatwal, a Maharashtra-based social activist who was admonished by the apex court. The bench asked him to “help the poor through the PIL jurisdiction. If you want to call it Bharat, do so. Nobody is stopping you.”, the bench had said.

However, prior to this order, the SC Bench led by Chief Justice H L Dattu had sought the responses from the Centre, states and Union Territories on Bhatwal’s plea, according to reports.

Moreover, Bhatwal had argued that the Constituent Assembly had originally conceived and adopted ‘Bharat’ as the official name. He had sought clarification on the phrase — “India, that is, Bharat shall be a Union of States” — used in Article 1 of the Indian Constitution.

He had stated in his petition that ‘India’ is not a literal translation of the word ‘Bharat’. Besides the country, both historically and in the Scriptures, is known as ‘Bharat’, as per reports. Moreover, he stated that with the phrase - 'India, that is Bharat, shall be a Union of States', codified Bharat’ name for the Republic of India'. After receiving no response from the Centre on the matter, the petitioner reportedly moved the Supreme Court.