Touted as Asia’s biggest Court Complex, the New Delhi’s sixth District Court came up in Saket and became operational from August 28, 2010.
Spread over 16 hectares, using a budget of Rs 313 crore,, the seven-story centrally air-conditioned Saket Court complex has 81 courts catering to the south and southeast districts of New Delhi, 700 lawyers’ chambers and 128 residential houses for judicial officers. Each floor is supported by a large central litigant waiting space with public amenities like toilets, drinking water and information display panels among others. Two bar rooms and a library for the judges and lawyers have also been provided. A temporary lock-up has been made for the undertrials till a permanent judicial lock-up is constructed.
Apart from having the best infrastructure in place, Saket court complex has also focused on security arrangements. Around 50 CCTV cameras have been placed in and out of the complex with a recording capacity of three days. The daily recordings will be monitored by the staff and all the entrances will be strictly monitored.
With its functioning, the litigants of south Delhi will not have to travel to the Patiala House Court complex to attend their cases. Earlier, 42 civil and criminal trial courts of New Delhi, south and south-east districts were located in the Patiala House courts. The Patiala House court complex houses a total of 5,000 lawyers and over 40 courts. At present, Patiala House Court has south district, south-east district and New Delhi district under its jurisdiction. As per the plans, only New Delhi district will stay in the Patiala House complex and other two districts will be transferred to Saket court.
From judges holding courts in the “space under the staircase” to “centrally airconditioned” courtrooms, the new swanky court complex at Saket is now a Model Court complex for other States. Sharing his experience of seeing judges working in “pathetic conditions” for the last 20 years, Chief Justice of India S H Kapadia on 28.08.2010 said that after opening of Saket court complex, which has the best infrastructural facilities, the subordinate courts will work with “dignity”.
“Can you have a judicial delivery system or justice delivery mechanism without proper infrastructure? The answer is no,” CJI Kapadia said at the inauguration of the sixth district court complex in New Delhil. CJI Kapadia said he had gone through the statistical data of the last 10 years regarding budget allocation for the judiciary and while other states had below 1% of their GDP being allocated to the judiciary, Delhi topped the chart with 1.6%. CJI Kapadia’s remarks were seconded by Delhi chief minister Sheila Dikshit also present at the inauguration who hinted that Saket was not going to be the last of the many district courts in the capital.” We are opening the sixth district court complex. Two more will come as and when the need arises. We can give whatever is required for the judicial system,” she said.
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