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HC seeks PWD’s action plan on repair and restoration of dilapidated court buildings

The Bombay High Court has directed the state PWD to submit a clear action plan for repairing and restoring nearly 18 dilapidated court buildings.

2 min readDec 9, 2025 10:36 PM IST

The bench criticised the state for failing to secure necessary approvals and posted the matter for further hearing on December 19.

The Bombay High Court has asked the Maharashtra PWD to submit an action plan for repairing and restoring around 18 dilapidated heritage court buildings. (File Photo)

The Bombay High Court on Tuesday sought action plan by the state government’s Public Works Department on repairs, maintenance and restoration of some of the old court buildings across Maharashtra.

The court said the government cannot give a reason that the permissions were not granted by its archaeology department as it was required to ensure how to avail such approvals from its own department.

A bench of Justices Revati Mohite-Dere and Sandesh D Patil were hearing suo motu PIL for maintenance and repairs of the old court buildings in the state which qualified for protection as heritage buildings. While the PIL was initially instituted by Nagpur bench of the HC for 10 districts in Vidarbha region, it was later transferred to principal seat of HC in Mumbai and its scope was expanded to such court buildings across the state.

In 2017, the HC was informed that court buildings in Dapoli Taluka in Ratnagiri district, Junnar Taluka in Pune district and court of Metropolitan Magistrate at Ballard Pier in Mumbai were granted heritage status and were in dilapidated condition.

The HC had then directed the PWD department to appoint its own expert officers or any other expert agency to visit the said court buildings to ascertain the nature of repairs required and restore and maintain them.

The court had noted some of the buildings were more than 100 years old and they were not granted any heritage status and none had applied mind to the issue whether the heritage status deserved to be granted to any of these buildings. Justice Mohite-Dere led bench had sought fresh report with respect to all court buildings including heritage buildings used as courts.

On Tuesday, the HC noted that the state’s PWD had failed to mention when it will begin repair work for nearly 18 dilapidated court buildings in the state and sought additional report from the government and posted further hearing to December 19.