New Delhi: Spacious courtrooms, an exclusive bar room for women lawyers, a separate waiting room for litigants — all this will be part of a new state-of-the-art complex proposed to be built in the Supreme Court premises, ThePrint has learnt.
This is the first time the Supreme Court would “undertake such a large-scale project” to resolve the problem of overcrowding in courtrooms.
Sources aware of the development told ThePrint that a seven-member committee of judges is working on a proposal to develop an additional building within the court precincts that will accommodate new large courtrooms equipped with the latest technology.
“The new complex is being planned keeping in mind the possible increase in litigation in the coming years that would obviously lead to a rise in the number of litigants visiting the court,” a source said.
Led by Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud, the committee comprises justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul, Sanjeev Khanna, B.R. Gavai, Surya Kant, Vikram Nath and B.V. Nagarathna.
The proposal has got the central government’s nod and work on the blueprint is on, it is learnt.
The Central Public Works Department (CPWD) will execute the project once it is formalised. “The work would be undertaken phase-wise so that the present working system is not disturbed and courtrooms are gradually moved to the new complex,” another source said.
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New building
According to the proposal, the new complex is likely to come up in place of the existing building that till some time back used to have offices of the SC registry, ThePrint has learnt. These offices have now been moved to the additional complex that was inaugurated in 2019 by the then president Ram Nath Kovind. The building is more or less vacant now.
The proposal envisages that the first five courtrooms would continue to function from the old building. The rest of the courts — number 8 to 14 — are likely to move to the new building that would consist of 17 large courtrooms, including a constitutional court that can accommodate 13 judges together to hear a matter involving important questions of law.
Besides, judges’ chambers, more bar rooms for advocates including an exclusive one for women lawyers, a library and waiting area for litigants would also find space in the new complex. The new building would be constructed in such a way that it would appear to be an extension of the old block.
“The last time a 13-judge bench assembled was in 1973 when the significant Kesavananda Bharati [v. State of Kerala] ruling was delivered. Then, there were not too many advocates practising in the court nor litigants assembled in large numbers. Today, a lawyer has many juniors, clerks and in some cases interns. Litigants too want to be part of the proceedings and a courtroom with a two-judge bench witnesses a large presence of all of them,” the second source quoted above said, explaining the need for more court halls.
In 2017, the top court under then CJI J.S. Khehar’s leadership had remodelled the existing halls to make them more spacious, according to media reports. Old courtrooms were dismantled to give way to new halls, with two old halls being combined to make a new one. Four courtrooms were moved to a new wing after space was carved out on the first floor of the building from the judges’ chambers’ block.
(Edited by Anumeha Saxena)
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