HC wants all its AC ducts cleaned during break

The court also took note of the submission made by the report that the air quality was “poor” even though air purifiers had been installed in several of the courtrooms.

Taking note of a report stating that the air quality inside the court complex was “bad”, the Delhi High Court on Thursday directed the court administration to get all AC ducts cleaned during the upcoming summer vacation.

According to an air quality monitoring study done by the court administration, the air inside the court complex was worse than the outside air, and the AC vents were “full of soot and particulate matter”. Further, the report stated that the carpets inside the courtrooms were “moist and fertile breeding ground for fungi” which posed a threat to the health of the people visiting the courts.

The High Court had taken suo motu cognizance of the issue of air pollution earlier this year. A plea had later been filed regarding the poor air quality inside the High Court complex itself. “Lakhs of people visit the High Court premises. You are putting all of us at risk,” the bench of Justice Badar Durrez Ahmed and Justice Sanjeev Sachdeva said.

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The court also took note of the submission made by the report that the air quality was “poor” even though air purifiers had been installed in several of the courtrooms. “The purifiers are not effective,” noted the court.

The court administration has proposed that the air filtration system be completely overhauled and ultraviolet germicide and air-handling units be installed. However, the proposal is still under consideration by the Building Maintenance Coordination Committee (BMCC).

The court has now asked the BMCC to “issue immediate directions” so that the work can be completed during the month-long vacation in June. The court, however, noted that the estimated costs given by a private firm to change the filters in the existing system were “ridiculous”. An estimate given by Voltas systems had pegged the cost of changing all filters at Rs 2.8 crore.

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