Madras High Court Acting Chief Justice T. Raja inaugurated six new court halls on the first floor of the heritage building of the court on Monday. Justices R. Suresh Kumar (background) and P.D. Audikesavalu (foreground) look on.
| Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
Madras High Court Acting Chief Justice T. Raja on Monday inaugurated six new court halls on the first four floor of the heritage building thereby increasing the number of court rooms from 46 to 52. The new court halls have been created after shifting judges’ chambers and administrative offices to the annexe building.
Two more court halls were undergoing civil works and would be inaugurated soon, said court officials. They also pointed out that all these 54 court halls would be equipped with video conferencing facilities though the High Court had five additional court halls exclusively for virtual courts.
The need for more court halls was felt with the increasing judges’ strength of the High Court which now has a working strength of 61 judges as against the sanctioned strength of 75 judges. The administration had been fulfilling the need by converting the judges’ chambers and administrative offices into court halls.
The ACJ also inaugurated a new ‘Lost and Found’ section in the High Court buildings for the purpose of returning to lawyers and litigants their misplaced documents and other articles. Until now they had been taking back the articles from the office of the Registrar (Administration) of the High Court.