UT for additional floor over multi-level parking at HC

Saurabh Malik

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, February 18

The UT Administration has submitted its plan for constructing an additional floor “overground” on the existing multi-level parking at the Punjab and Haryana High Court. This is in addition to the three-storeyed underground parking in the vicinity of the High Court.

The Administration has informed the HC: “A provision for constructing an additional floor overground on the existing multi-level parking being used by members of the Bar has also been submitted along with a holistic plan for the expansion of the existing building and infrastructure of the High Court”.

UT senior standing counsel Pankaj Jain also told the High Court that the UT Chief Architect had already submitted a building plan for a three-storeyed underground parking beneath the green area behind the Tourist Information Centre stretching up to the Rock Garden.

Jain also informed the Division Bench of Chief Justice Ravi Shanker Jha and Justice Arun Palli that the matter was now pending consideration of the HC building committee and a decision thereon would be taken by it. The Bench made it clear that matter would now come up for hearing on March 19. The matter has its genesis in the demand by lawyers for the construction of chambers and  a multi-level parking in “the Capitol Parc” entailing a 6-acre green patch between the Tourist Information Centre and the road abutting the Rock Garden. A writ petition, “the Punjab and Haryana High Court Bar Association versus UT of Chandigarh”, was filed in the matter way back in 2013 for additional land to construct new chambers.

The Bench, at one point of time, was told that the UT Administration, after discussing the matter at the UT Administrator’s level, was of the view that the city’s green belt/space could not be converted for any other purpose.

Taking a note of the submissions, the Bench had, on July 21, 2015, asserted: “In view of the said affidavit filed, we direct the Adviser to the UT Administrator to file an affidavit suggesting some alternative space for the construction of chambers in the vicinity of the High Court”.

Responding to the directions, the then Adviser had submitted that the Administration was ready to take up the matter with the building committee for providing “additional space” for the construction of chambers “within the High Court premises”.

Join Whatsapp Channel of The Tribune for latest updates.