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Thiruvanthapuram: Kerala will soon have a judicial city on 27 acres of land in Kalamassery in Kochi. The state cabinet on Wednesday granted in-principle approval to establish the proposed judicial city at Kalamassery by acquiring 27 acres of land owned by HMT Limited, PTI reported, citing a CMO statement.
The Home Department has been entrusted with the task of initiating preliminary steps required to implement the project and examining the possibility of obtaining central assistance, the statement said.
The decision towards the judicial city stems from a proposal at the 2023 annual meeting between Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and then Kerala High Court Chief Justice Ashish Jitendra Desai. The court had raised the space constraints on its current premises, The Indian Express reported.
The proposed judicial city will be a judicial complex of courts and associated infrastructure that will house the new state High Court. As per the TIE report, the court complex has been envisaged as three towers, conceptualising Articles 14, 19 and 21 of the Indian Constitution. The said articles guarantee the right to equality, right to freedom and right to life and personal liberty, respectively.
It is learnt that the court complex will include 61 court halls of the High Court, an auditorium, offices of registrars, chambers for various committees, a spacious library, an arbitration centre, an IT block, an information centre and a recruitment cell.
On Wednesday, the cabinet, chaired by CM Pinarayi Vijayan, also approved the draft of the Kerala Public Service Right Bill 2025.
The cabinet also approved a draft bill that will add a new provision regarding the holding of syndicate meetings in the state's University Acts.
The CMO statement said members of the State Food Commission have been appointed, adding that the appointment is in accordance with the provisions of the National Food Safety Act, 2013 and the State Food Safety Rules, 2018.