Present High Court building has archaeological value, should be preserved: Bombay High Court

The building presently housing the Bombay High Court has immense archaeological and heritage value and should be preserved with minimal damage, the High Court said on Wednesday..The Court, therefore, urged the State government and the High Court administration to shift the High Court out of the present building as early as possible to the proposed site at Bandra so that damages to the present building due to footfall can be minimised.“This (current High Court) building is 150 years old. It has not only archaeological value but also has to be preserved. There is so much footfall, so it should be preserved as is. Let us maintain the heritage,” the Court said..The remarks were made by a bench of Chief Justice DK Upadhyaya and Justice Arif Doctor while hearing a plea concerning the allotment of land to construct the new court complex.In January 2019, the High Court had directed the State government to take a decision on offering a large and convenient plot of land for the construction of the new High Court complex.The petitioner, advocate Ahmad Abdi later approached the High Court seeking contempt of court action against the government for non-compliance with the 2019 order on land allotment.Maharashtra Advocate General Dr Birendra Saraf on March 30 this year informed the Court that the Maharashtra government has decided to allot 30.16 acres of land in Bandra for the new building.On May 25, 2023, it called upon the High Court Registrar to depute a representative for taking advance possession of the land..After this, the matter had been adjourned and it came up for hearing today when the AG informed that a high powered committee (HPC) was looking into everything required for constructing the new building. He informed that the HPC includes a representative of the Chief Justice of the High Court, a representative of the Chief Minister and principal secretaries of all departments of the State. He requested the Court to give the committee some time to consider the whole issue and come to a decision..The Chief Justice adjourned the matter by 3 weeks with the hope that the HPC would have arrived at a concrete decision. The court also suggested the State government ensure that the land user is changed from 'residential' to 'commercial' at the earliest.The Court also assured the petitioner that if required, it will even call for an affidavit on the work done by the HPC. The matter will be heard next on August 30.