Prayagraj, May 5 The Allahabad High Court has clarified who is entitled to be addressed with the honorific 'Hon'ble', observing that the prefix is meant for constitutional functionaries exercising sovereign functions.
A division bench of Justices J J Munir and Tarun Saxena said that the honorific cannot be used by civil servants, irrespective of rank, if they do not hold a sovereign constitutional office.
"The honorific 'Hon'ble' is to be appended to the names of constitutional functionaries who exercise sovereign functions of any of the three organs of the government," the bench said in an order dated April 30.
"Ministers of the Central and state governments, judges of the Supreme Court and high courts, speakers and chairpersons of Parliament and state legislatures, and members of Parliament and state assemblies are entitled to the use of this honorific," it said.
The court said that anyone entitled to the use of the honorific must be addressed accordingly as per established protocol.
The observations came while hearing a writ petition filed by one Harshit Sharma. During the earlier hearing, the court took note of the Uttar Pradesh Police not using the honorific before the name of BJP MP and former Union minister Anurag Thakur in an FIR lodged in Mathura.
The court had directed the additional chief secretary (home) to explain the lapse. In response, the state government submitted an affidavit stating that instructions had been issued to the senior superintendent of police, Mathura, on April 2, 2026, to conduct a preliminary inquiry.
The affidavit also stated that the FIR was registered based on a Hindi complaint filed by one Khajan Singh, who was unaware of the protocol regarding the use of honorific for members of Parliament or former Union ministers.
In the FIR lodged in Mathura, the complainant alleged that he was duped of a large sum of money by an accused who claimed proximity to Thakur to secure government jobs.
