Punjab & Haryana High Court Bar To Vote On Proposal To Shift HC Building Amid Space Crunch

The Punjab and Haryana High Court Bar Association today announced that it will vote on whether the High Court building should be shifted to a new place or not.

The development comes after the High Court in a PIL considering the increasing footfall and space constraints, had asked the Chandigarh UT Administration to explore alternative locations for the construction of a new High Court building.

It had directed the High Court Bar Association and the UT Administration to hold a joint meeting, to be presided over by ASG Satya Pal Jain, to deliberate on the issue.

On August 20, the Bar Association Executive Committee unanimously approved a resolution to shift the High Court to Chandigarh's Sarangpur village, where a new building would be constructed.

While hearing the PIL on August 22, the Court said that resolution of the Executive committee to shift the building to Sarangpur, “be placed before the General Body which, if passed, would be accepted by this court, not otherwise.”

15 acres have already been allotted and a total of 48.865 acres has been earmarked for High Court building in Sarangpur, providing approximately 42 lakh square feet of constructed area for the exclusive use of the High Court.

On other hand, there is proposal to construct a new High Court in the same campus (opposite the PHHCBA Bar Room) which would provide extra apace of about 3 lakhs sq feet area which would have 16 court rooms and an underground parking for about 600-700 cars - as against about 500 parked in the open. This would require approval of the World Heritage Committee as per the UNESCO Guidelines.

The Bar Association Secretary Gagandeep Jammu with respect to the above plan, stated that, “Bar members would get only about 60,000 sq feet area which would also be completely insufficient.”

Thereafter, it would take more than 5 years to complete the project with lot of congestion, dust, blockades and reduction of parking space while the construction work takes place, due to construction material, machinery and vehicles, stated the Association.

“Besides, there are only two entry/exits to the high court which cannot be increased and with the ever increasing traffic and demand of space, due to increase in number of Judges, employees, advocates, advocates staff and litigants, the pathways shall continue to get more and more congested,” it added.

In an appeal to vote, the Association stated, “So either we stay congested here or we breath into the future. The decision is yours for which you must cast your valuable vote.”

The date and schedule of voting is yet to be notified.