Lack of space in the District Court Complex Budgam which increases hardships of lawyers and general public
Reyaz Badhana
Problems of masses in central Kashmir’s Budgam District are increasing day by day due to the lack of space in the court complex. District Budgam being a populous district in the UT of JK is facing immense problems as scores of people keep coming to court complex Budgam on daily basis for different purposes but lack of space in the said complex turns problematic for general Public as well as for the people associated with the court Like Hon’ble Judges, Lawyers, other staff and non-staff members working in the court. While talking to some clients they said “The court lacks basic car parking facility and we have to park our vehicles on the road for which we have to pay fine later on when MC Budgam tows our vehicles. They further added “We face lot of problems in this court as it remains crowded all the time. It is worth to mention here that six judges are discharging their functions in the small area of court complex, which include Principal District and Sessions Judge, Additional District Judge, Chief Judicial Magistrate, Special Mobile Magistrate. Judicial Magistrate First Class, secretary DALSA , in addition to this more than 150 lawyers are currently working in this court and around 100 lawyers from other courts of UT visit this court on daily basis and due to the lack of proper space court complex becomes overcrowded .
Advocate Nazir Ahmed, General Secretary Bar Association Chadoora said “Due to lesser space in the court complex Budgam both clients as well as lawyers are facing problems and more especially lawyers do not have any special place where they can sit and common people face more hurdles as it remains crowded all the time. Senior advocate Reyaz Ahmed from Charari-Sharief while talking to us said “Every year number of lawyers is increasing but the complex (space) is same as it was at the time of its establishment and there is immediate need of expanding the size of court complex to overcome this space shortage”. He further added “This is the only court complex where we don’t have parking facility and also clients park their vehicles outside court that turns more problematic besides court complex lacks basic infrastructure as there is no proper space for development of future infrastructure like spacious court rooms, chambers for lawyers etc”. However, the state land measuring 117 Kanals and 19 Marlas were identified for the construction of new District Court Complex Budgam at Ichgam Budgam, which has been identified by both Judiciary and Revenue Department. It has been brought in the notice of the Hon’ble High Court and Department of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs vide File No. LAW-Plg/67/2023-12 (7281126) dated 05.09.2023 and has also requested for transfer of the said land for construction of New District Court Complex, Budgam, however till date the land transfer papers have not been submitted by the district administration and no significant progress has been made in this important issue.
