Source : INDIA TODAY NEWS
The Rajasthan High Court is confronting an irony: the building from which it dispenses justice to protect citizens’ rights may itself be unsafe for judges, advocates and litigants.
Taking suo motu cognisance of the condition of its principal seat in Jodhpur, the high court, on August 10, warned that the building’s 21-metre-high central dome is, according to an ongoing IIT Bombay assessment, in a state of “imminent collapse” and “may fall at any moment”. The court has highlighted the threat as “ever-present”.
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The building was inaugurated in December 2019 by then president of India Ram Nath Kovind in the presence of top judges. The building was built on over 100 acres at a reported cost of Rs 316 crore. The structural work was completed in 2013.
The high court’s order records a striking catalogue of failures. Before February 2023, roofs had fallen in court numbers 2, 9 and 16 and chamber 16. On February 20, the false ceiling in chamber 14 fell after the roof gave way. On April 29, a portion of the roof in the central dome itself came down.
The incidents did not stop. False ceilings fell in the civil miscellaneous appeal and bill sections in June 2023. A roof collapsed near the lift at gate number 3 in September 2024. Water seepage brought down a false ceiling in court number 19. Plaster fell from the dome area in April 2025, from the statistics section in October and a corridor in November. The corridor towards the chief justice’s chamber was also found to be in a dilapidated condition.
The court pointed to these mishaps as evidence of “a series of prior and continuing structural and maintenance failures”. It noted pervasive water seepage, poor-quality sanitary pipes and fittings, defective drainage, inadequate fire-safety systems and progressive cracks in load-bearing elements. The cumulative effect, it said, showed a “systemic failure in the upkeep, monitoring and timely rectification” of the building.
On August 11, the Rajasthan High Court at Jaipur said it does not know whom it can trust ever since the case of the Jodhpur High Court’s building has come up. The court was taking up the case of dilapidated school buildings and wondered how the Rs 12,000 crore earmarked by the Rajasthan government for repairing schools/constructing new classrooms would be spent.
The troubling fact is that the warning had come years before the alarm now. An IIT Jodhpur expert committee had inspected the building and submitted its report in April 2023. It found heavy corrosion of steel reinforcement beneath areas where concrete had spalled and ceilings had fallen. There was also corrosion-induced cracking, severely corroded rebars in rooftop columns, improper waterproofing, damaged plaster, tile delamination and defective rooftop sealing
Then came IIT Bombay’s warning. Its assessment has taken the matter into an entirely different danger zone. IIT Bombay found active corrosion in several structural members, with about 40 per cent of inspected areas vulnerable to concrete spalling. Tests indicated use of doubtful-quality concrete.
The court has consequently ordered restricted access to vulnerable areas, round-the-clock structural monitoring, daily reports with photographs or videos, a 24-hour control room, a written evacuation protocol and mock drills.
The move is also towards accountability. The court asked for names and designations of officers and consultants responsible for the building’s structural safety, maintenance, fire safety and upkeep so that individual accountability could be fixed.
The high court upheld chargesheets issued against government engineers Suresh Sharma and Jitendra Sharma, who had served as project director and project officer, respectively, for the construction. The chargesheets were issued in May 2025, and the court noted allegations involving substandard material and negligence.
The high court at Jodhpur was designed by the state’s architecture department. Its chief designer T.R. Sharma was at the time chief architect of the public works department (PWD). The circumstances surrounding the architectural decisions deserve scrutiny too. T.R. Sharma had earlier allegedly insisted that the architecture department alone be permitted to design the building. That position resulted in cancellation of a tender to hire a private architecture firm. After Sharma superannuated, he returned as a private advisor associated with the project.
Usually, it is the responsibility of the architecture firm to hire a structural engineer who prepares structural designs that are then vetted by IITs or reputed state government engineering colleges. Whether this process was followed is not yet ascertained.
Now, the court has asked top officials, such as the chief secretary, finance secretary, PWD secretary, director general of police and representatives of IIT Jodhpur, IIT Bombay and the structural auditor to remain present during the hearing on August 24.
The question is how did a Rs 316 crore building, inaugurated with the country’s top constitutional functionaries present, deteriorate so rapidly, and why warnings, falling ceilings and structural failures did not produce an adequate response earlier.
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SOURCE :- TIMES OF INDIA
