Democratic & Buoyant

The architecture of the New Courts Block of the Delhi High Court complements the existing structure even as it brings the courts up to date on the contemporaneous requirements of a new century

- Suman Tarafdar

For every city, its courts are a landmark, whether by their prominence in the common people’s lives or a sense of the unknown apprehension of landing up there sometime. Over the years, however, courts have actively tried to make the experience pleasanter, and the Delhi High Court’s New Courts Block is no exception. As the nation’s judiciary system strives to evolve and expedite legal procedures, architectural interventions become crucial to support these endeavours.

The Delhi High Court’s location is already in a rather sylvan location, just off the India Gate lawns in the heart of New Delhi, and a short distance from the nation’s Supreme Court. Sited amongst generous green between Jaipur House, which now houses the National Gallery of Modern Art (NGMA) and the Khair-ulManazil Masjid, built in 1561, the existing High Court building was built in 1966.

Unlike the rather classical architecture of the Supreme Court, the Delhi High Court had a building with a façade that blended broad pillars with the far straighter lines of modernist architecture – all clad in a combination of local cream-hued sandstone and concrete. ‘This was designed by a CPWD architect called Benjamin,’ says Goonmeet S Chauhan, lead architect of the project and a partner at Design Forum International, the architects of the project.