President Droupadi Murmu on Wednesday inaugurated the new building of the Jharkhand High Court at Dhurwa in Ranchi in the presence of Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud, Jharkhand Governor CP Radhakrishnan, Union Law and Justice Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal, Chief Justice of Jharkhand High Court Justice Sanjaya Kumar Mishra, Chief Minister Hemant Soren and other dignitaries.

The Jharkhand High Court building is the biggest High Court building in the country spread over an area of 165-acre compound and built at a cost of about Rs 550 crore.

The new High Court building has 25 air-conditioned courtrooms and two halls for lawyers with a sitting capacity of 1,200 people each, along with 540 chambers, an official said.

Speaking on the occasion, President Droupadi Murmu asked judges, lawyers and government to find a way to ensure justice to those poor who are not getting the same despite a court’s order. “The happiness of a poor litigant who rejoices in the victory in a court of law after a long battle is often short-lived as he/she often doesn’t get what was ordered by a court,” she pointed out. “Jayein to kahan jayein (Where to go?) He/she feels devastated and helpless,” she said.

The President said that she often used to get complaints from the poor regarding the problem. She said that there is a system of filing contempt cases but the poor having experience of struggling for years to get justice are afraid of doing so.

Sharing her personal experience, the President said when she was associated with a family counselling centre she used to revisit those families benefitted by the counselling support to ensure their current status and some initiative like this should also be planned to ensure that the poor who get justice from court after long legal fight may not deprive of their justice due to any other reason.

Chief Minister Hemant Soren attending the function stressed on providing reservation (quota) for scheduled tribes, scheduled castes in Higher judiciary. He said the subordinate courts in State have reservation for SC/ST and other backward castes, but despite seventy years of Independence the higher judiciary have low representations of these sections.

He urged the President and CJI to provide quotas in higher judiciary so that these sections get equal representation.

Chief Justice of India D.Y Chandrachud speaking on the occasion pleaded for giving equal status to the district courts while addressing a function organized to inaugurate the new Jharkhand High Court building here. He said when district courts are called subordinate courts it gives an impression that it is not independent and this impression is required to be changed. The Chief Justice said it is the duty of the Supreme Court and High Courts to make the subordinate court capable.

Chief justice Chandrchud said it will be difficult to maintain the faith of common people in the judiciary until there is delay in granting bail to undertrial persons. He talked about timely hearing, timely procurement of order copies, proper arrangement of water, food and washroom facilities in courts.

The governor CP Radhakrishnan and Chief Justice of Jharkhand High Court Sanjaya Kumar Mishra also spoke on the occasion.

The need for the new building arose from the growing numbers of litigants and the vulnerability of the old HC building, which has been operating since 1972 – first as a circuit court and then as a permanent bench of the Patna High Court. The building was conceptualised in 2013, but the work started in 2015.

The main building complex is built on 72 acres of area and the total campus is around 167 acres leaving scope for future expansion. The complex comprises an auditorium, conference rooms, committee meeting halls, and a separate building for advocate general and government counsels. The new HC has a capacity of more than 4,300 people including judges, residential judges, lawyers and visitors.

It has 25 air-conditioned court blocks which will include the judge’s chamber, one ante room, one personal assistant room and one waiting room. In addition, the Chief Justice Block will also include a video conference room, kitchen, dining hall and conference hall. There will be a separate 12 conference room for the judges and 10 chambers for the registrars and four court offices. In addition there will be a sitting lounge, a judge’s library, oath commissioner’s chambers, different cells, chambers, one kitchen and one canteen.