The Union Cabinet at its meeting in Delhi today with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the chair approved the introduction of a bill to rename high courts named after cities they are located in, consequent to cities’ name being changed.

“The high courts (Alteration of Names) Bill, 2016 will facilitate the changing of the names of Bombay High Court to Mumbai High Court and Madras high court to Chennai High Court respectively,” said a cabinet communique.

Consequent to the change in the names of these cities, there had been demands for change in the names of these high courts.

At present, there is no central law under which the proposal for change of names of these high courts can be addressed and the the proposed legislation is to address this requirement, it said.

There have been many previous proposals to rename high courts, such as in December 2015 by the law minister for the Bombay and Calcutta high courts, and by the law ministry in January 2015.