The Delhi High Court has expressed its vexation at the Delhi government and Delhi Development Authority (DDA) for not providing land for redevelopment and expansion of the Tis Hazari court complex.
A bench comprising of Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice Sanjeev Narula while handling with an application filed by the High Court itself seeking directions to the authorities to allot the land required for the expansion of the court complex in a time bound manner.
The Court said it is unfortunate that for the purpose of construction of court complexes, land is not being allotted by the land-owning agency.
The application was moved by the High Court in November 2021 in an already pending public interest litigation (PIL) petition filed by advocate RK Kapoor seeking directions for creating requisite infrastructure for court complexes.
The application highlighted the fact that despite the directions of the Supreme Court dating as far back as the year 1997, there has been no serious movement on handing over the possession of the land.
The bench on Monday directed the DDA and the Delhi government to file their responses within a week and listed the case for further consideration on September 13.
In its application, the Delhi High Court said that the land is urgently required for the construction of courtroom and the plans for Tis Hazari’s redevelopment have been approved but the same could not be executed for want of administrative approval and expenditure sanction of the preliminary estimate submitted by Public Works Department (PWD).
The Court was told that due to space constraints, the working conditions at Tis Hazari are extremely poor because of which lawyers, stamp vendors and oath commissioners occupy places in the open.
It is the duty and responsibility of the Delhi government and the Central government to ensure the availability of land at the earliest, the High Court contended in its application.
Advocate Shweta Kapoor appeared for the petitioner RK Kapoor.
Delhi High Court was represented by advocate Padma Priya.
Additional Standing Counsel (ASC) Rishikesh Kumar with advocates Sheenu Priya, Sudhir Kumar Shukla, Sumit Chaudhary, Sudhir, Roshni Haldhar and Muhammad Zaid appeared for the Delhi government.