PIL petition complains of haphazard parking of vehicles on Madras High Court campus – The Hindu

The travails faced by lawyers, litigants, court staff and others owing to haphazard parking of vehicles on the Madras High Court campus were brought to the notice of the court on Wednesday by way of a public interest litigation petition which insisted on construction of a multi-level parking lot.

The First Division Bench of Acting Chief Justice T. Raja and Justice D. Krishnakumar heard the petition filed and argued in person by advocate Sudharshana Sunder, 56, and said they shall convene a meeting of stakeholders within a week to discuss the issue. They agreed to find both a short-term as well as long-term solution to the problem.

In her petition, Ms. Sunder said she was a lawyer practising in the courts on the High Court campus as well as the magistrate courts at Egmore, Allikulam, Saidapet, George Town, the Debts Recovery Tribunal, the Debts Recovery Appellate Tribunal, the National Company Law Tribunal and the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal.

These were her professional obligations, apart from taking care of domestic chores. Though she had to shuttle between one court to another at different time in a given day, it was virtually impossible to have seamless travel because her car, more often than not, gets caught in the parking area of the High Court owing to lack of regulation.

She said that though the number of vehicles brought to the court campus daily had risen substantially over the years, the parking space had shrunk considerably because of the cordoning of the areas around the High Court buildings by the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) for security purposes.

During the course of hearing, the ACJ said the Madras Bar Association (MBA) could also think of engaging a few drivers and introduce a valet parking system.