Amit Shah Addresses Infrastructure Woes at Patiala House Courts

A delegation met Union Home Minister Amit Shah to discuss pressing infrastructure issues at Patiala House courts in Delhi, urging expansion to combat space constraints and improve facilities, amid security and traffic challenges.

A delegation from a district court bar body has given a representation to Union Home Minister Amit Shah, raising concerns regarding infrastructure at the Patiala House courts here.

According to a release from the New Delhi Bar Association, the home minister on Monday evening received a ''representation highlighting infrastructure concerns at Patiala House courts situated in the high-security India Gate zone.''

It said that the association's president Nagendra Kumar, honorary secretary Tarun Rana and Rajya Sabha MP and advocate Sasmit Patra gave a representation ''highlighting urgent infrastructure concerns arising out of severe space constraints and lack of adequate facilities'' in the court complex.

The delegation emphasised that Patiala House courts is uniquely positioned as the only major court complex located in the immediate vicinity of India Gate and other strategic establishments since 1978, thereby requiring urgent attention not merely from the perspective of judicial infrastructure but also from the standpoint of litigants' convenience and traffic management.

It said that the delegation also underlined the acute shortage of courtrooms, lawyers' chambers, parking facilities and allied infrastructure at Patiala House courts, which caters to a large number of advocates, litigants and judicial officers and exercises jurisdiction over the prestigious Lutyens' Delhi area.

The delegation urged the Home Minister to facilitate expeditious consideration of proposals concerning the utilisation of adjoining premises and available land as an annexe building for expansion of judicial infrastructure to strengthen the administration of justice, while also addressing the security and traffic concerns associated with the area.

It highlighted that the concept of annexe building has been successfully implemented in the other court complexes of Delhi, as and when the need arose for expansion.