For lawyers, CJ defers opening of new court rooms

Chief Justice Jaynarayan Patel has decided to defer the opening of the new court rooms in the new building of the Calcutta High Court that was inaugurated last week. This, after the advocates expressed their dissatisfaction over the High Court administration's plan to shift some of the court rooms to the new building.

The Chief Justice on Tuesday assured the Bar Association that the new court rooms will not be functioning in the new building for now, as the issue needs to be discussed with the other judges. Source said the High Court administration had planned to open a few court rooms in the new building from third week of April.

The advocates had been opposing the move saying it would be difficult for them to attend hearings since the court rooms are spread over three buildings — old building, Centenary Building and the new building — and the new building is located at a considerable distance from the other two.

On Tuesday, representatives of Bar Association suggested to the Chief Justice to accommodate all the court rooms in the old heritage building and the departments could be shifted from the old building to the new building. Apart from this, the offices could be vacated from the ground floor and first floor from the Centenary Building and new court rooms could be opened there, they told the Chief Justice.

Bhaskar Prasad Baishaya, general secretary, Bar Association, said the new building was constructed at a cost of nearly Rs 56 crore and 24 court rooms were supposed to be set up in the ten-storey building.

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