From dedicating one of its divisions for the purpose to posting senior engineers at the helm of such projects for completion, the Delhi government has gone into damage control mode after being rapped by the Supreme Court earlier this month for the “serious dearth of judicial infrastructure” in the capital. On December 11, a Supreme Court bench comprising Chief Justice DY Chandrachud and Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Mishra had termed the “inordinate delay” on part of the Delhi government in granting funds for infrastructure projects approved by the Delhi High Court “a matter of regret”. Some of these projects have been pending since 2019. After the SC order and a meeting at its directions, convened by the Acting Chief Justice of the Delhi High Court and attended by the Chief Secretary, Principal Secretary (Law), Principal Secretary (Finance) and Secretary, in-charge of the PWD, the department redesignated the 'Other Projects' division as the 'Judiciary & Projects' division on December 13 and posted six Executive Engineers at the helm of infrastructure-related projects related to nine courts and four jails in the city, on December 18. According to the PWD website, out of the 396 projects for the Delhi High Court, 138 are in progress, while 215 are at the conceptual/planning stage. This includes setting up an IP-based CCTV and surveillance system around the periphery of Delhi High court; electrical and mechanical maintenance projects; providing lifts for the differently abled, among others. Some significant projects like providing X-ray baggage scanners at entry points and maintenance and operation of multilevel and underground parking lots are in progress. A total of 30 projects which includes significant work such as the construction of a new block and the redevelopment of another in the High Court premises, among others, have been completed till 2023. As per a status report filed by the Delhi law secretary on December 5, seven significant infrastructure-related projects were at various stages of pendency: the construction of 48 court rooms and 250 lawyers' work stations at a district centre in Shastri Park at a cost of more than Rs. 184 crore – approved by the Delhi Law Minister on September 13 this year – had not taken off due to lack of concurrence by the Delhi government's finance department. Similarly, the construction of 50 court rooms at the Karkardooma District Courts complex at over Rs. 178 crore – approved by the Minister on September 1 – was also not accorded concurrence by the Finance Department. The construction of two towers – one each for 100 courtrooms and the other for 270 lawyers' chambers at the Rohini Court complex at a cost of over Rs. 663 crore – was pending with the Law Minister since August 17 in addition to the redevelopment of the Tis Hazri court complex, at a cost of over Rs. 3,000 crore, since August 31. “We find no reason for the Government of NCTD to keep proposals pending for such an inordinate long period of time. The consequence of this is that there is an acute shortage of court rooms.” the Bench had observed. In a recent cabinet reshuffle, the Delhi government’s Law and Justice department was assigned to Atishi. It was earlier held by Kailash Gahlot. Prior to the reshuffle, L-G VK Saxena had recalled all files related to courts and justice delivery from the AAP government flagging, “inordinate delay” in clearance.
