Supreme Court to construct 27 new courtrooms, four registrar courtrooms: CJI DY Chandrachud

New Delhi, August 16

As part of its expansion plan, the Supreme Court will construct 27 new courtrooms, four registrar courtrooms and additional facilities for lawyers and litigants, Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud has announced.

“We have submitted our proposal to the Central Government and the file is with the Department of Justice. Detailed plans have been drawn up including the budget. I’m sure it will receive the best attention from the Law Minster and the Department of Justice,” CJI Chandrachud said on Tuesday.

Addressing the Independence Day celebrations organised by the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA), the CJI said the project would be completed in two phases.

He said in the first phase, the museum and annexe building will be demolished to create 15 courtrooms, SCBA library, SCAORA meeting rooms, canteen for lawyers and litigants, womens’ bar room, while in the second phase some parts will be demolished to create 12 additional courtrooms, registrar courts, SCBA lounge and SCAORA lounge.

An additional facility for 600 parking slots for lawyers at the Supreme Court was also being created, he added.

The CJI also talked about phase-3 of the ambitious e-courts project which envisaged inter-linking all courts across India with an allocation of Rs 7,000 crore from the Centre.

On Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Independence Day speech lauding the Supreme Court for translating judgments into regional languages, the CJI said the top court had plans to further expand it.

He said so far 9,423 judgments had been translated into regional languages, 8977 judgments into Hindi and several others into other regional languages. “We aim to translate all 35,000 judgments of the Supreme Court from its birth in all Indian languages. This will also facilitate use of regional language in courts,” Justice Chandrachud said.