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Chief Justice of India Justice Surya Kant is scheduled to inaugurate the facility, built between the District Courts complex and the Chandigarh Judicial Academy. Once operational, vehicles parked in the existing lawyers’ parking area inside the court complex will be shifted to the new facility, clearing the site for construction of the proposed court complex.

The District Courts were shifted from Sector 17 to Sector 43 in 2013. Although a new court complex was part of the original plan, the earmarked land was subsequently converted into a parking area for lawyers. With the completion of the new parking facility, spread over 4.5 acres and capable of accommodating nearly 1,500 vehicles, the administration is expected to revive the expansion project.

The district judiciary currently functions with 30 courtrooms despite having over one lakh pending cases, including more than 75,000 criminal and around 24,000 civil cases. The additional courtrooms are expected to improve case disposal, with some likely to be designated as special courts.

The project also includes a new record room. The existing facility has reportedly run out of storage space, forcing the judiciary to rent private premises to store court records at a recurring monthly cost of several lakh rupees.

The multi-level parking project was taken up by the UT Administration’s Engineering Department nearly four years ago to address chronic parking shortages at the district courts, which see thousands of litigants and around 1,200 lawyers every day. The shortage has frequently led to congestion inside the court complex and traffic bottlenecks on surrounding roads, including near the adjoining bus stand.

It is, however, yet to be decided who will operate the parking facility. While the UT Administration has not announced the operating mechanism, the District Bar Association has demanded priority access for lawyers.

“We have struggled for 13 years for this parking facility. Around 1,200 lawyers come to the district courts every day, and a considerable amount of their time is wasted searching for parking. We demand that this parking facility be reserved for lawyers,” said District Bar Association president Advocate Ashok Chauhan.

Constructed at an estimated cost of Rs 80 crore, the parking facility has a basement and four upper floors. Its foundation stone was laid by Union Home Minister Amit Shah on July 30, 2022.