IIT Roorkee to conduct heritage assessment for HC’s holistic development plan

The high court bench of acting chief justice Ritu Bahri and justice Nidhi Gupta ordered the Centre to call the Chandigarh department of architecture and planning, IIT Roorkee, for this

The Punjab and Haryana high court has directed the central government to get heritage assessment done from IIT Roorkee as part of high court’s holistic development plan.

The Chandigarh administration has got a heritage impact assessment report prepared on the underground parking project in the Capitol Complex and holistic development of the high court complex. (HT Photo)

The high court bench of acting chief justice Ritu Bahri and justice Nidhi Gupta ordered the Centre to call the department of architecture and planning, IIT Roorkee, for this.

The court was hearing a plea from Punjab and Haryana High Court Employees Association secretary Vinod Dhatterwal, seeking implementation of the plan, which envisages setting up of multi-storey buildings to cater to the requirement of additional space.

Over 10,000 lawyers, 3,300 court employees and a large number of litigants visit the court on a daily basis, apart from inflow of around 10,000 cars and thousands of two-wheelers. But the infrastructure to cater to such a large number has not been increased, the plea said, demanding intervention from the high court on judicial side.

The UT has got a heritage impact assessment report prepared on the underground parking project in the Capitol Complex and holistic development of the high court complex. UT has asserted that it has no objection to the holistic development plan for multi-level underground parking, provided it is cleared by the Centre. The HIA report prepared is inclined towards heritage protection over expansion needs of the high court. The changes suggested in the plan may impact the heritage status.