Chandigarh High Court takes serious note of Record Room flooding in Sector 17

The Punjab and Haryana High Court has expressed serious concerns about the flooding of its record room in Sector 17, Chandigarh, after the city experienced 158 mm of rainfall on August 11. The heavy downpour led to widespread waterlogging, traffic jams, and significant damage across the city, including in the high court’s record room. The basement of the former district court building, now housing important court records, was severely flooded due to sewage backflow. 

While some records have been digitized, many remain in physical form and could be at risk. The court emphasized that if unscanned records were damaged, it would be a grave issue, with accountability resting on the Chandigarh administration. The court has asked the Union Territory (UT) to submit a plan to prevent such incidents by August 23, when the matter will be revisited.

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Repeated warnings ignored

The court noted that it had previously issued reminders to the UT in October last year, as well as in April and May this year, to take action to prevent such flooding, but no effective steps were taken. The issue came up during the hearing of a 2013 public interest litigation (PIL) seeking infrastructure development of the high court complex due to rising congestion and space limitations. The court also instructed the UT to devise a traffic circulation plan for the complex to ease traffic during peak hours and requested a fresh report on the progress of the high court’s holistic development plan.