Mamata Banerjee on Thursday handed over the “B” block of the New Secretariat Building here to the judiciary in the presence of Calcutta High Court Chief Justice Prakash Shrivastava.
The G+9 structure with about 25,000sqft will house several new courts.During the handover ceremony, Justice Shrivastava said there was a space crunch at the high court and that was why the state government had been requested to find a suitable place to accommodate some new courts and chambers of judges.
The chief minister said the government was eager to provide required assistance to the high court as the judiciary held immense importance in a democratic set up.
“We had identified the New Secretariat Building to solve the problem of the high court as it is located very close to the high court. The problem was that there were offices of 19 departments in the building. We decided to relocate the offices and hand it over to the judiciary,” said Mamata.
Sources said as the high court and the city civil court were facing shortage of space, the judiciary had requested the government to arrange for about 50,000sqft of space near the high court.
“Right now, the government could arrange for about 25,000sqft of space. In near future, the government will try to find more space for the judiciary,” said an official.
The chief minister requested Justice Shrivastava and other judges of the high court present at the programme to dispose of pending cases as early as possible and also to appoint some more women judges in the courts.Mamata pointed out that everybody should have faith in the judiciary as it was one of the most important pillars of democracy. She, however, expressed her displeasure with some recent developments.“I am a member of the bar council and I give annual subscriptions as well.… I have even argued in some human rights-related cases and I can tell from that experience that media trial should be stopped. A lot of things are being said (during the hearing), which are not linked to the final verdict,” said the chief minister.
