Chandigarh mulls allocation of Sarangpur land for High Court horizontal expansion

Saurabh Malik

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Chandigarh, November 30

In a significant stride towards the Punjab and Haryana High Court’s horizontal expansion, the Chandigarh Administration is exploring the allocation of separate land at Sarangpur near the PGI to accommodate its judicial record. Information to this effect was furnished before a Division Bench of the High Court during the hearing of a decade-old and a related matter on pressing need for extra space.

The information came just about a fortnight after the Bench directed the Chandigarh Administration to come out with a clear time frame for the transfer of currently locked vacant rooms in the old Secretariat building located in Sector 9.

As the case came up for resumed hearing before the Bench of Acting Chief Justice Ritu Bahri and Justice Nidhi Gupta, the counsel appearing for UT Chandigarh handed over a chart prepared after inspecting the administrative block of the HC and the main building. Among other things, it said a proposal had been made to shift some branches and sections to a room in old district court building in Sector 17.

The counsel further stated that the rooms to be allotted would also be upgraded and renovated. The Bench was assured that the Chandigarh Administration was also “considering giving separate land at Sarangpur near the PGI for keeping the judicial record of this High Court”.

Senior advocate RS Khosla, in response, stated that the rooms going to become vacant after the shifting of offices to the Sector 17 building should be given back to the advocates in the basement of lawyers chambers “which were being used by High Court branches”. Taking up the matter, the Bench made it clear that the aspect would be looked into by the HC building committee.

The directions came on a plea seeking directions to the Union of India, the Union Territory of Chandigarh and other respondents to expedite the High Court’s “holistic development plan” for reducing the load on the existing building.

One of the petitions in the matter was filed in public interest by Vinod Dhatterwal, secretary of the Punjab and Haryana High Court Employees Association, and other petitioners.

The Bench was told that approximately 10,000 lawyers, around 3,300 court employees, nearly 3,000 advocates’ clerks, employees of Advocate-General offices of the two states, security personnel, uncountable litigants and other employees of different departments visited the High Court daily. No less than 10,000 cars and thousands of two-wheelers also reached the court. The existing building/premises were unable to bear the load. It has also been contended that there was hardly any space to accommodate more than 5 lakh judicial files pending in the High Court.

The petitioners added that there was a mammoth increase in the membership of advocates, the employees and footfall of litigants, besides the officials, compared to the times when the High Court started as a common institution for two states and a UT.

“From the security and emergency perspective, even a small incident can lead to a rampage resulting in unimagined loss. The present situation in the parking lot is such that neither an ambulance nor a fire brigade can reach a desired place,” the plea said.