Govt appeals against order for High Court building complex

PANJIM, JAN 6
The State Government is in no mood to part with huge area of land near Secretariat in Porvorim for construction of High Court complex even though it was essentially acquired for building complex for High Court.
The state has gone now appealed before the Supreme Court after Bombay High Court at Goa rejected its review application filed seeking review of the 2009 order.
In 2009, the High Court had issued direction to construct a High Court complex at Porvorim and had also directed the government to finalize plans for the construction of the High Court complex after government disclosed that it had changed its plans about constructing High Court complex in Porvorim.
The court also ordered that the construction of the High Court building should commence within a period of three months, in accordance with the law while hearing a Public Interest Litigation (PIL).  
Moreover, the Court had prohibited the State’s law department from handing over the property to any other department or corporate sector.
Earlier, last year High Court also dismissed a review application holding that the review application is nothing but an appeal in disguise.
Existing High Court complex at Altinho is not adequate and space crunch is constant problem and hence, the government had acquired land at Porvorim but later back-tracked on the plans.
During hearing of the review application, Advocate General Subodh Kantak who represented the government had told the Court that High Court cannot direct the government to allot a particular land or building for the courts.