Mumbai: The Maharashtra government informed the Bombay High Court on Thursday that it will allot 30.16 acres of land in Bandra East for the construction of a new building for the High Court.
Advocate General Birendra Saraf informed a bench of Acting Chief Justice SV Gangapurwala and Justice Sandeep Marne that the Public Works Department (PWD) has agreed to surrender the land for the new HC complex. He added that the process of formal allotment and a Government Resolution (GR) will be issued shortly.
Land will have tribunals and chambers for lawyers
The land will be at Bandra East and will have central tribunals as well as chambers for lawyers (8.9 acres) along with the High Court building (21 acres) which will also include judge's quarters.The High Court was hearing a plea filed by advocate Ahmad Abdi seeking that contempt of court action be initiated against State government authorities for non-compliance with a 2019 High Court order on land allotment for a high court complex.
Saraf further said that a memorandum has been signed with the PWD to that effect. He said that there was a land parcel in Bandra which was reserved for government employee housing by the PWD. However, PWD has now granted its consent to give up that land for building a new high court complex.
State will need time to change reservation to a commercial complex
At present, the land was reserved for government housing in the city development land. However, the State will require some time to change the reservation to a commercial complex. Once that is done, the state will proceed to issue the GR. Saraf said, “The land was with the PWD. It has agreed to surrender the land to be reserved for the High Court Complex. The process of formal reservation and GR will follow.”
Abdi pointed out that the contempt petition has been pending for 6 years and the State has not taken any action yet. He said that the government was in contempt of the order passed by the High Court in January 2019 in his public interest litigation (PIL) petition. He had filed the PIL in 2012 seeking a new building for the HC on a priority basis.
Plea contended that state government delibrately ignored to take steps
In January 2019, the HC had directed the State government to take a decision on offering a large and convenient plot of land for construction of a new high court complex. The HC was in touch with the executive to identify additional space.
His plea contended that since the 2019 order, the State government has completely failed and deliberately ignored' to take steps towards the same.
In November 2022, at a function, Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis had said that soon land would be allotted for a high court complex. He had said that the Chief Justice Dipankar Datta (now a Supreme Court justice) had made all efforts to have a new building for the HC.
