Mumbai: New 17-storey Mazgaon court building inaugurated by acting Chief Justice SV Gangapurwala

Acting Chief Justice SV Gangapurwala on Saturday inaugurated the new 17-storey, centrally air-conditioned building for the Mazgaon court.

Apart from Justice Gangapurwala, Justices KR Shriram, MS Karnik, Kamal Khata, Sharmila Deshmukh and Neela Gokhale were present for the inauguration.

The new tower will house 21 magistrate courts and 21 sessions courts. Apart from Mazgaon magistrate courts – which are presently functioning from Sewri – three magistrate courts in Ballard Estate are slated to be shifted to the new building.

The building was demolished in 2016 after it was found to be dilapidated.

The new building comes in the wake of several orders being passed by the Bombay High Court in a petition seeking a new building in place of the existing building. The Mazgaon Court Bar Association had also in 2015 filed a petition before the HC for expeditious restoration of the dilapidated structure.

In 2016, the HC had directed that the building be vacated after it was found to be substandard. “Cracks and other defects noticed required immediate vacation of the building and emergency measures to ensure that it was vacated and handed over in a vacant state for demolition. After such a history and a dismal track record of the Public Works Department and the State officials, it is now the anxiety of the Court that quality construction and fit enough to house a Court building comes up at the very site,” the bench led by Justice SC Dharmadhikari had said then.

The HC, on April 13, disposed of the petition seeking new court building at Mazgaon after it was informed that the new building was ready to be functional and would be inaugurated on April 22.