Four-and-a-half months after the then Chief Justice of India Deepak Mishra inaugurated the new court complex in Hubballi, it became functional on the first day of the New Year on Tuesday.
Although the new court complex has all the facilities, there was delay in making it functional as no government agency was fixed for the maintenance of the fully air-conditioned multi-storeyed building.
The new court complex was built at a cost of ₹ 122 crore on Hosur-Unkal Link Road in Vidyanagar, Hubballi, and the issue of who has to bear the annual maintenance cost delayed making the courts functional. The annual maintenance cost of the building, including electricity bill and data connectivity, is around ₹ 5 crore. The issue has been sorted out now with the Judicial Department consenting to foot the electricity and data charges and the Public Works Department deciding to take up the responsibility of building maintenance.
Consequently, workers were deployed to shift the court documents on Saturday and they worked day and night to make the necessary arrangements to make the courts functional.
On Tuesday, Principal District and Sessions Judge Ishappa Bhute performed puja to symbolise the new court complex becoming functional. Subsequently, he inaugurated the auditorium of the Hubballi Bar Association and the women advocates wing on the new court complex premises. The new complex premises has 16 court rooms.
Admitting that technical issues had delayed the start of the new court complex, Mr. Bhute said all the courts would become fully functional now. He told presspersons that committees would be formed to ensure that the court complex was maintained properly.
He said that there were 142 washrooms in the court complex and to ensure that they were properly maintained, a monitoring team consisting of judges, advocates and officials would be formed soon.
He said that the road adjoining the court complex was being widened and it would help in handling the huge inflow of vehicles to the area.
After the formal inauguration, Mr. Bhute and other judges, judicial officers and office-bearers of the Bar Association, including its president Ashok Baligar, inspected the facilities.
