PANAJI: The law minister Nilesh Cabral informed the house on Wednesday that the new court complex in Merces (which includes 11 courts), the work of which was tendered in September 2016 will be completed by April 2021 provided there are no other changes in the structural design.
He was replying to a question posed by Congress MLA Filip Neri Rodrigues who stated that due to delay in construction work, the government was losing revenue on rent.
“Is the government helping private premise owners by delaying the construction process,” asked Neri.
It may be recalled that around one-third of the court premises in the state are in private buildings.
Cabral said that since the new court building is not complete, a total of 10 courts are running in private premises, but there are 16 in government buildings of which 10 are in North and 6 in South.
As per a written reply, government is paying rent of around Rs 1 lakh/month to Panaji Velho Building in which Court of Ad-hoc district Judge 2 and Assistant Session Judge are located since January 2004. The government is also paying from January 2004, Rs 1 lakh as rent for Ganesh Smruti Building premises in Mapusa where district Judge 1 and Additional session judge offices are located.
Around Rs 72,570/month rent is being paid since December 2010 for housing district Judge 1 and Additional Session Judge premises to the owner of Raj Raunak Building, Mapusa.
For housing CBI court, rent of around Rs 91,770/month is paid for Raj Raunak Building premises.
Around Rs 48.72 lakh/month is paid for Spaces building in Patto-Panaji whose 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 6th floors have subordinate civil and criminal courts and whose 2-floor houses two government offices.
A rent of around Rs 1.5 lakh/month is being paid from July 2005 to the Vaidya hospital building in Panaji which houses the administrative tribunal.
