In charge of administering justice in industrial disputes and labour-related cases, the court and its judges, it seems, is utterly helpless when it comes to helping its own cause. Its personnel have complained to the authorities any number of times about the peeling plaster -- the building was last (and first) whitewashed 10 years ago -- the leaks, even the ceiling fan that collapsed during a hearing last year, but for all the response they have received, they might as well have been talking to a brick wall. One better maintained that the court walls, no doubt.

Just 10 years old, the three-storey building of the Industrial and Labour Court seems to have had a star-crossed birth. Though judges refuse to come on record in deference to official decorum, other officials claim the construction was technically flawed.

Establishment department staff say the plinth of the building is level with the ground, which is much lower than the height of the main road. So even the slightest rainfall sees the water running into the toilet next to the chief judge's office, making it virtually unusable. What exacerbates the condition further is the absence of an exhaust fan in the toilet.

If the toilets don't raise a stink, the termites do. According to court officials, the building wasn't made termite-proof during construction and the entire office is virtually overrun with the destructive insects now. Last year, court even had to be suspended for a week as some records had been eaten away. ``The office records are in real danger'', says an official in charge of them.

Not just the paper; even the wooden platforms in some of the courtrooms have been weakened by the incessant gnawing of the pests. ``They can collapse anytime'', confesses a junior judge on condition of anonymity. ``Besides, electrical fittings are so poor that tubelights and fans stop working abruptly''.

There's more. According to an official, the monsoons are the most trying time of all, when judges, staff members, clients and pleaders have to wade through knee-deep water accumulated at the entrance to reach the building.

Though fingers are pointed all around, they come to a stop at the State Public Works Department, which constructed the building at a cost of Rs 25 lakhs in 1988. Judges and departmental officials have written to the PWD officials any number of times officials show records of letters sent to the PWD deputy executive engineer on April 15, August 4 and 11, September 4, December 17 last year and again on February 2, March 13, June 19 and July 6 this year but none earned a response, let alone action. Unsurprisingly, the letter written on August 4 last year, demanding steps against officials/persons involved in the construction and approval of the building, too, went unanswered.

Incidentally, while the PWD ignores the complaints, a site-visit by Deputy Labour Secretary Ashok Koshy moved him enough to write to the secretary of the PWD's roads and buildings department, ``I was horrified to see the condition of the building from where the courts are functioning. Walls are crumbling; windowpanes are shattered. There were pools of water everywhere, including inside courtrooms. There was stink from the toilet and urinals within the court room. In short, it was an appalling sight''. When contacted, PWD (road and building) executive engineer H C Chaudhary expressed ignorance about requests for repairs of the labour court building. ``I will personally inspect the building if its condition is so pathetic and try to do whatever necessary for its restoration'', he promises.

It remains to be seen if they remain just words.