THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The foundation stone for the new court complex at Vanchiyoor will be laid in the first week of November, Minister for Law M. Vijayakumar said here on Tuesday.

He was speaking after a meeting convened to review the progress of the proposed project and inspect the site. The fund for the construction of the complex was allocated in the budget, he said.

The project had also received the approval from both the Government as well as the High Court.

The building would be constructed in such a manner that the beauty of the existing structure would not be marred, Mr. Vijayakumar said.

The 5,000-sq.m. building would house 12 courts, including those which are now functioning from rented buildings and scattered across various parts of the city. They include the Family Court at Sreekaryam, the Vigilance Court at Pattoor and the Cooperative Tribunal at Sreekanteswaram.

Courts to be shifted

The complex would also include a CBI court, a first in the city. Some of the other courts proposed to be shifted to the new building are the Chief Judicial Magistrate Court, Judicial First Class Magistrate Court, Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate Court and the Motor Accident Claims Tribunal currently functioning on the Vanchiyoor campus.

The Rs.4-crore project, to be located in front of the Fast Track Court building, would also have provisions for library, car parking and a waiting area reserved for the litigants.

The number of floors of the additional court complex has been limited to three so that the height of the building does not eclipse that of the main court structure.

Long-pending demand

According N. Sivaramakrishnan Nair, president, Trivandrum Bar Association, the setting up of an additional court complex had been one of the long-pending demands of the association. "Some of the existing courts are congested and ill-equipped to accommodate the increasing number of litigants," he said.

The meeting was also attended by Principal Secretary (Home) Lissy Jacob; District and Sessions judge D. Pappachan; District Collector N. Ayyappan and the representatives of the Public Works Department.

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