CWP No. 22963 of 2010 and other connected cases 1 IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH Date of decision: 14.03.2011 CWP No. 22963 of 2010 Santosh Kaur Riar and others ......PETITIONERS VERSUS State of Punjab and others ….. RESPONDENT CWP No. 22970 of 2010 Ashish Gupta and others ......PETITIONERS VERSUS State of Punjab and others ….. RESPONDENT CWP No. 22977 of 2010 Jarnail Singh and others ......PETITIONERS VERSUS State of Punjab and others ….. RESPONDENT CORAM:HON’BLE MR. JUSTICE RANJAN GOGOI, CHIEF JUSTICE HON’BLE MR. JUSTICE AUGUSTINE GEORGE MASIH Present: Mr. N.K.Banka, Advocate, for the petitioners. Ms. Madhu Dayal, Addl. A.G. Punjab. Mr. Vikas Behl, Advocate, for respondent No. 2. Mr. Kamaljit Singh, Advocate, for Mr. R.S. Khosla, Advocate, for respondent No. 5. Mr. Vipin Mahajan, Advocate. *** RANJAN GOGOI, CJ (Oral) All the three writ petitions seek to challenge the decision of the Building Committee (Punjab) of this Court with regard to the site that has been selected for building of a new Court Complex at Gurdaspur. The CWP No. 22963 of 2010 and other connected cases 2 Building Committee meeting held on 27.08.2010 took a unanimous decision that the site of the existing Court Complex is most suitable amongst the three sites proposed. Assailing the said order, CWP No. 22977 of 2010 has been filed by 22 Advocates though learned counsel for the petitioners claims that more than 100 Advocates represent the point of view reflected in the writ petition. CWP No. 22970 of 2010 has been filed by some of the Traders while CWP No. 22963 of 2010 has been filed by the Municipal Councillors. During the pendency of the writ petitions, a further representation was filed before this Court on the administrative side for re- consideration of earlier decision of the Building Committee dated 27.08.2010. This Court, by its order dated 16.02.2011, had directed that the said representation be placed before the Building Committee. In the meantime, the Building Committee was reconstituted by the order of the Chief Justice. The reconstituted Building Committee held a meeting on 07.03.2011 and in the said meeting, amongst others, the representation for shifting the site of the proposed Court Complex was again considered. Copy of the Minutes of the said meeting, which has been placed before the Court, indicates that the views of the Chief Administrator, PUDA, Deputy Commissioner, Gurdaspur, District and Sessions Judge, Gurdaspur as well as Chief Architect were taken into account. Thereafter, the Building Committee came to the conclusion that the present existing site would be most suitable for constructing the new Court Complex. It must be clarified at this stage that one of us (Hon'ble Mr. Justice Augustine George Masih) had signed the minutes of the said meeting dated 07.03.2011. However, the participation of his Lordship in the said meeting was only with regard to items No. 14 to 17 pertaining to CWP No. 22963 of 2010 and other connected cases 3 Sessions Division, Amritsar. In fact in the said meeting, the Administrative Judges of different districts, in respect of which decisions were also taken, were requested to attend the meeting as special invitees. If the Building Committee of this Court has twice taken a decision that the existing site would be the most convenient location for housing the new Complex and that too after taking the views of all concerned, it is difficult to see as to how this Court, in the exercise of its jurisdiction under Article 226, can review the said decision. The Writ Court would never convert itself to an Appellate Body and sit over the views recorded by the Building Committee which were taken after site inspection and on consideration of the conflicting view points of all the interested parties. We are, therefore, of the view that these writ petitions ought not to be entertained any further and instead the decision of the Building Committee dated 07.03.2011 should be allowed to prevail. Consequently, all the writ petitions are dismissed. C.M. Nos. 3791-92 in CWP No. 22970 of 2010 C.M. Nos.3823-24 of 2011 in CWP No. 22977 of 2010 In view of the dismissal of the main writ petitions, these applications are also dismissed. ( RANJAN GOGOI ) CHIEF JUSTICE ( AUGUSTINE GEORGE MASIH ) JUDGE March 14, 2011 pj CWP No. 22963 of 2010 and other connected cases 4