Finally, Goa’s highest Temple of Justice will start functioning from tomorrow at the new premises in Porvorim.
Surprisingly our High Court building has been designed like the Gujarat High Court and has no sloping roof. This may be impractical and inappropriate in view of the very heavy rainfall Goa gets. Experts opine that this flat roof will start leaking in a year or two.
With a lot of taxpayer’s money having been spent on our new High Court building, the Goa State Infrastructure Development Corporation (GSIDC) should have planned our High Court for it to withstand and endure for decades to come the heavy monsoons that lash our State.
But the GSIDC is known for its very substandard projects. A glaring example is the prestigious Atal Setu Bridge across the Mandovi. We were assured it would last over a century but has developed huge craters on the bridge in the second year itself.
Instead of being just another concrete structure it would have been so appropriate if our new High Court building could have reflected the facets of Goan Architecture. It could have symbolically established the continuity of the old buildings where our High court began its working, first from the old Judicial Commissioners Court in the city and then to the current old Lyceum complex at Altinho.
The legacy of Goa’s rich history in the field of Judicial and Legal services should have been placed in a better context for posterity. There was room to plan and design our High Court with a Goan centric finesse. But let us now live with this missed opportunity.
