According to the president of Baroda Bar Association, Narendra Tiwari, Vadodara’s lawyers were the first to ask for a court complex in the city, as the present district courts located in Nyay Mandir were not adequate enough to deliver justice to the increasing number of court cases.

It was after Newsline reported the matter repeatedly did the District Court officials have a meeting with BBA officials and decided to resolve it, informed Tiwari. Earlier, the Gujarat High Court had allotted land measuring 43,750 square metres (in a letter dated October 3, 2007); but it was the Family and Health Department that was not ready to give in. It had proposed 33,574 square metres of land in the same Vaccine Institute Compound.

“Now, after protesting for so many days, we have been allotted 15,000 sq metres of land in the Vaccine Compound,” said Tiwari. The BBA president added that the Principal Judge of Vadodara, Atul Vakil, had met BBA officials and several other lawyers and assured that the 15,000 square metres have been allocated to the present proposal.

Celebrating the move by the Gujarat High Court, lawyers in the city burst crackers near Shaheed Bhagat Singh Chowk. Atul Vakil, however, refused to comment on the issue.

The BBA president added that earlier, the government had promised to give a piece of land for the proposed complex at Yavateshwar Compound. But later, he alleged, due to the builder lobby, the plot was not allocated to the courts.