A high-level meeting in this regard was held on Monday in New Delhi at the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) office. The meeting was attended by Home-cum-Finance Secretary Sanjay Kumar. A communication confirming the development in this regard was received by the UT Administration later this evening.

The Punjab and Haryana High Court had hauled up the Ministry of Law and Justice last week for not granting administrative approval to the UT administration to construct the court complex.

As the proposal was hanging fire since January 2007, the high court had granted one week's time to the Ministry of Law and Justice to grant sanction the Sector-43 project. But the fact that it had not been sanctioned was known to the authorities at the time of the inauguration of the project. They had expected that the ministry would sanction the approval without any delay.

Another significant factor behind the delay in the construction of the new complex was the paucity of funds and the limitation of UT administration to spend in excess of Rs 10 crore.

According to the rules, the UT Administration cannot spend more than Rs 10 crore in any project. Initially, the total cost of the project was pegged at Rs 14 crore, which has escalated to Rs 18.5 crore. According to the report submitted by the UT administration, the new complex is likely to be completed on October 7, 2009.