Beginning this month, a number of courtrooms here will be given a facelift and steps will be taken to do away with the noisy atmosphere that prevails inside a courtroom during proceedings. Cupboards occupying the corridors will also be removed to enable easier movement of people.

In another significant initiative, as many as 14 rooms have been earmarked in the court complex as record rooms.

Records will be housed at a distance from the courts, so that proceedings are not disrupted due to people making enquiries and accessing case files.

Currently, a number of such ‘rooms’, created by partitioning a room into two using cupboards, are positioned inside courtrooms, because of lack of space.

With litigants and lawyers frequently coming here to inspect case files and other queries, this arrangement was not conducive for the smooth running of court proceedings.

This move by the court administration aims at providing a more appropriate atmosphere for hearings, while positioning the record rooms at a proper distance at the same time, so that neither the staff nor litigants are disturbed.

According to the plan, there will be no public dealings inside the 14 record rooms and the ahlmeds (record keepers) will have more time to finish off their work.

Instead of directing enquiries to the ahlmeds, litigants, lawyers and other interested parties will have to contact a superintendent, who will be in-charge of entertaining their requests and fetching files for them with the aid of two clerks.

These record rooms will be provided with a sufficient number of cupboards and shelves for placing the records according to different classification.

This step has been hailed by judicial officers and court staff alike on one side, and litigants and lawyers on the other.