THE Supreme Court on Friday asked the Maharashtra Government to strive to hand over by the end of September the first tranche of land for construction of a new Bombay High Court building. A bench headed by Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud asserted that the State authorities need not wait till the end of the year to hand over the entire land and smaller areas can be given as they become available. “We direct the Maharashtra Government to make all endeavour to hand over the first tranche of land of 9.64 acre by the end of September 2024. The Government of Maharashtra need not wait till December to hand over the entire 9.64 acre and smaller areas could be handed over.

 

All endeavour be made for 9.64 acre to be handed over by September 30, 2024,” the court said. The top court was hearing a case under its suo motu (on its own) jurisdiction, initiated after taking note of an April 29 letter petition of Bombay Bar Association president Nitin Thakker and other bar leaders with respect to the urgent need of accommodation for the High Court of judicature at Bombay whose existing building is 150 years old. It titled the case ‘Heritage Building of the Bombay High Court and allotment of additional lands for the High Court’.

 

The top court was earlier informed that the High Court has approved the proposal of the Maharashtra Government for a land at Bandra East in Mumbai but some portion of the land was being occupied by Government housing colonies. On Friday, Advocate General for Maharashtra assured that the authorities were trying their best to facilitate construction of the new building for the High Court and the deadline of December would be followed for providing the land, stating it was part of an integrated development and at present the Model Code of Conduct was in place.