Court Design Handbook

Court Design Handbook for District Courts in India

The Design Handbook seeks to envision and implement a user-centric District Court Complex responsive to the needs of all diverse users, i.e., litigants, judges, lawyers, Court staff, witnesses, accused persons, police, public visitors and other stakeholders in the justice system. A principles-based framework is used to highlight associated guidelines and design considerations, for creating truly inclusive, accessible, efficient, comfortable, adaptable, and sustainable Courts where the experience of seeking and providing justice is significantly improved.

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Projects Authors And Acknowledgements

Shreya Tripathy is a Senior Resident Fellow at Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy working as part of the Justice, Access, and Lowering Delays in India (JALDI) Initiative. Priyamvadha Shivaji is a Research Fellow at Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy working as part of the Justice, Access, and Lowering Delays in India (JALDI) Initiative. Brinda Sastry is an architect, urban designer, and planner with experience in formulating policies, audit frameworks, and design guidelines, with a participatory approach, to ensure inclusive and equitable design of public places. Shreya Shetty is an architect and urban design consultant, Co-Founder of 369 Ochre Studio who assisted in drafting the Harmonised Guidelines & Standards for Universal Accessibility in India 2021, drafted by the National Institute of Urban Affairs (NIUA) & Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee released by Central Public Works Department, Government of India under Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs. Bhagyalaxmi Madapur , Co-Founder of 369 Ochre Studio in Bengaluru, India, is an architect and urbanist who worked as a contract consultant with the Asian Development Bank (ADB) on the project "Sponge City: Towards Building Flood Resilient Kolkata," which involved creating educational materials-infographic handbooks, videos, and brochures aimed at strengthening the capacity of Kolkata Municipal Corporation for resilient urban services. Abubakar Shaikh is an architect and Art Lead at Autovrse. Gayatri Ganesh is an architect and Experience Designer at Autovrse. Milind D.P. is the Executive Vice President, Consultancy & Projects, BNA Technology Consulting Ltd. His division is focused on IT Infrastructure Design, Project Management and Monitoring of ICT Projects. Arun Kumar is an acoustic consultant at HMPL Consulting Pvt Ltd, Bangalore, with over 8 years of expertise in Architectural, Environmental, and Industrial Acoustics, dedicated to shaping sound environments for optimal experiences. Akshatha Hariharan is an architect exploring the realms of Visual & User experience design. Rama Raghavan is an Architectural writer and researcher based in Pune. As a pedagogue, she has curated courses in Accessibility and Universal Design. She has worked on several publications that intricately connect the built environment with socio-spatial dimensions. This report has been in the making for over two years and owes a great deal to the inputs provided by a multitude of people. The authors would like to thank the following: Deepika Kinhal (Team Lead, JALDI) for her guidance throughout the project and for reviewing the report. The authors are also grateful to Reshma Sekhar (Former Senior Resident Fellow, JALDI) for her contribution to the conceptualisation of the Handbook. Dr. Gaurav Raheja (Professor of Architecture, IIT Roorkee) and Dr. Rahela Korakhiwala (Author, From the Colonial to the Contemporary: Images, Iconography, Memories, and Performances of Law in India's High Courts) for their guidance in the conceptualisation stage. Justice Badar Durrez Ahmad (Former Chief Justice, Jammu & Kashmir High Court), Justice Ponugoti Naveen Rao (Former Acting Chief Justice, Telangana High Court) and Mr. Suresh Kogilgere (Former Registrar, Karnataka High Court) for their inputs for the project. Dr. Tanya Machado (Professor of Clinical Psychology (Rtd). Consultant Clinical Psychologist) and Dr. Ria Fernandez (Rehabilitation Specialist, Mazumdar Shaw Hospital) for their inputs on child-friendly design and providing trauma-informed design considerations for vulnerable witnesses. Akhilesh (Project Second Chance) for his inputs on safe, secure, and humane design considerations for accused persons. Nilesh Singit (independent accessibility expert) and Dr. Sanjay Jain (Professor at National Law School of India University, Bengaluru), members of the Supreme Court Committee on Accessibility, for their inputs on ensuring universal accessibility. Alok Prasanna Kumar (Co-founder and Team Lead, Vidhi Karnataka), and Vidhi Fellows Manmayi Sharma (Senior Resident Fellow, Disability Inclusion & Access), Yashaswini Basu (Outreach Lead, Nyaaya), Yogini Oke (Impact and Partnerships Fellow), Shireen Yachu (Communications Fellow, Impact Collective) and Somya Jain (Research Fellow, Disability Inclusion & Access) for their inputs on the project. Damini Ghosh (Team Lead, Disability, Inclusion & Access at Vidhi) and Prof. Sanjay Kanvinde (Senior Partner, Kanvinde Rai & Chowdhury) for peer-reviewing the Handbook and providing their invaluable feedback. Over the months of February and March 2024, four round-table consultations were held with experts from various fields, on the following themes covered in the Handbook: Institutional capacity building; Making District Courts safe, secure and comfortable; Incorporating Universal Design Principles; and Facilitating efficient and future-ready Court Complexes. The authors would like to thank the following participants for their inputs during the sessions: Justice (retd.) Ponugoti Naveen Rao (former acting Chief Justice at Telangana High Court), Prof. Jyoti Dogra (Professor at Indian Law Institute), Dr. Sheila Ramaswamy (Technical & Operational Lead at NIMHANS), Ms. Arushi Anthwal (Legal Counsel at Counsel to Secure Justice), Ms. Kushi Kushalappa (Director, Support & Rehabilitation at Enfold India), Ms. Shirisha Reddy (Program Manager at Nyaaya Kannada), Mr. Amar Jain (co-founder at Mission Accessibility), Ms. Anita Iyer Narayan (Managing Trustee, sponsor and volunteer at Ekansh Trust), Prof. Gaurav Raheja (Professor Incharge, Inclusion & Accessibility Services at IIT Roorkee), Ms. Nivedita Krishna (founder-director at PACTA), Ms. Pooja Sastry (PhD candidate in architectural history at University College, Dublin), Ms. Shruti Dixit (practising lawyer in Lucknow), Mr. Akshay Jain (Assistant Program Manager at National Centre for Promotion of Employment for Disabled People), Mr. Rahul Bajaj (co-founder at Mission Accessibility) and Mr. R. Sri Kumar (former Head of Police Force in Karnataka and former Chief Vigilance Commissioner). The Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy is an independent think-tank doing legal research to make better laws and improve governance for the public good. The JALDI Initiative is a multi-year initiative that aims to advocate for and implement evidence-based reforms to eliminate the existing backlog in Courts and ensure that cases are disposed within reasonable timelines. This report is under the aegis of JALDI Innovation Lab, a multi-disciplinary collaborative of experts to design solutions for the justice delivery systems in India. Errors, if any, rest with the authors. Contact us at jaldi@vidhilegalpolicy.in

Sub Project Title

Design Guide for User-Centric Court Complexes

design

law

Jaldi Lab Aspect Title

Design

Design

Design-thinking and architecture to transform how accessing justice looks and feels

Jaldi Lab Aspect Title

Law

Law

Rules and policies to guide implementation of reforms in a fair, just and transparent manner.

Introducing the Court Design Handbook

Introducing the Court Design Handbook

Court Design Handbook: Reimagining Courts that meet the needs of all users

Court Design Handbook: Reimagining Courts that meet the needs of all users

Designing Justice: Introducing JALDI's New Video Series

Designing Justice: Introducing JALDI's New Video Series

Designing Justice: Interview with Anchal Bhateja

Designing Justice: Interview with Anchal Bhateja

Introduction to the series

Introduction to the series

How can we improve e-Filing in courts?

How can we improve e-Filing in courts?

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For the purposes of this Handbook, the term “Conference rooms” is used to refer interchangeably to conference halls and general meeting rooms.

NCMS (2012).

Model Video Conferencing Rules.

Model Live Streaming Rules.

Objectives

Facilitate uninterrupted person-to-person or group interactions

in the conference halls and meeting rooms;

Enable real-time communication with remote locations

, whenever necessary (within the building and outside), through video-conferencing facilities;

Ensure that the conference halls and meeting rooms have

good acoustics, light, and ventilation

for making the space comfortable for all users;

Design the meeting rooms to be flexible

so it can double-up as a training space or get divided into smaller meeting rooms;

Ensure that the

meeting room furniture layout is flexible

to facilitate both meeting room and classroom type instruction; and

Ensure that the conference rooms and meeting rooms are

accessible to diverse user groups

Users

Judges

Lawyers

Administrative staff

Adjacencies

The Conference Rooms and Training Rooms may be situated in a separate section of the Court Complex and may not be part of the public-facing areas.

They must have direct access to an accessible adjoining pantry and sanitary provisions, including washrooms and drinking water facilities.

The Conference Rooms must have direct access to an adjoining lounge area, to be used during ongoing conferences.

The Conference Rooms and Training Rooms must be directly accessible from the administrative wing and from the separate corridors used by Judges, as well as easily accessible by lawyers.

They may be located away from Courtrooms and other areas in which noise is likely to occur.

Desktop, Laptop, mobile devices with internet connectivity and printer;

Device ensuring uninterrupted power supply;

Camera;

Microphones and speakers;

Display unit / screen;

Document visualizer;

Provision of a firewall;

Adequate seating arrangements ensuring privacy;

Adequate lighting; and

Availability of a quiet and secure space.

Design Considerations

The Conference Rooms and Training Rooms must have designated seating spaces for persons with specific needs such as wheel-chair users, pregnant women, elderly persons, etc., in accordance with the accessible seating ratios in the Harmonised Guidelines (2021).

Image 66: Accessible Seating Ratios

Source

Harmonised Guidelines 2021, p. 356, Table 6.3

All Conference Rooms and Meeting Rooms must be equipped with the necessary accessible furniture such as modular and ergonomic seating, conference tables, etc., based on the capacity of the room.

They must have adequate space for the technicians controlling the functioning of various facilities, including video-conferencing facilities. In such cases where space cannot be provided within the room, adequate space must be provided in an adjacent room to ensure easy coordination.

The Training Rooms may be used for conducting training programs for all stakeholders including lawyers and litigants. For example, gender and disability sensitisation programs may be conducted (see

PART D, Section 5.1

, for further details). Adequate work tables must be provided for the use of individuals and/or groups.

For a Conference Room of larger size, provisions may be made for partition walls/sliding walls for configuring smaller meeting spaces.

Proper sound insulation must be implemented to minimise disturbances from adjacent spaces during sessions. Parallel acoustically reflective surfaces in the room must be avoided. For further details on acoustics, please refer to

Annexure 5

As per the Model Video Conferencing Rules

and the Model Live Streaming Rules,

the following provisions must be taken into consideration:

Table 15:

Design considerations arising from the Model Video Conferencing Rules and Model Live Streaming Rules.

Redundant Internet Service Providers (ISPs) with automatic failover must be provided, to ensure service continuity during any downtime.

The conference rooms should be acoustically treated to achieve a reverberation time below

0.5 sec

. Sufficient wall and ceiling acoustic materials should be considered.For further details on acoustics, please refer to

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PART C - THE HANDBOOK

ORGANIZATION AND DESIGN OF SPACES OF THE COURT COMPLEX

2.9.

Legal Facilities

B. Conference Room/Training Room

A District Court must be equipped with adequate adequate meeting/conference

and training rooms for the use of the Judicial Officers.

Additionally, separate meeting rooms must be provided for Advocates and staff of the District Court to hold meetings and to conduct training sessions for all stakeholders as and when they are necessary. The rooms must also be well-equipped to facilitate video-conferencing for meetings to be held in an online or hybrid mode.

Wherever necessary, an Auditorium with adequate seating capacity may be provided depending on the footfall of the District Court. The Auditorium should be accessible for diverse users, have adequate ergonomic seating as required for the Court Complex, and be equipped with the necessary IT infrastructure.

Image 67: Example of a Video Conferencing Hall at the High Court of Odisha

Figure 61: Typical floor plan of a 10-person capacity Conference Room

Figure 62: Typical floor plan of a 25-person capacity Conference Room

Figure 63: Typical floor plan of a Training Room

References

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Section

Section Title

Details

Model Video Conferencing Rules

S. 4.

Facilities recommended for Video Conferencing

The following equipment is recommended for conducting proceedings by video conferencing at the Court Point and at the Remote Point:

(i) Desktop, Laptop, mobile devices with internet connectivity and printer;

(ii) Device ensuring uninterrupted power supply;

(iii) Camera;

(iv) Microphones and speakers;

(v) Display unit;

(vi) Document visualizer;

(vii) Provision of a firewall;

(viii) Adequate seating arrangements ensuring privacy;

(ix) Adequate lighting; and

(x) Availability of a quiet and secure space

All Conference Rooms and Training Rooms must be equipped with the necessary technology and equipment to facilitate video-conferencing, remote display of evidence, and voice recording, including:

Model Live Streaming Rules

S.11.

Dedicated room(s) for live streaming

In order to decongest the court rooms, dedicated room(s) for viewing the live stream may be made available within the court premises. Access shall be given to law researchers, staff, litigants, academicians, and media personnel authorised to enter the court premises upon receipt of necessary permissions/approvals. Appropriate arrangements shall be made to enable viewing of live streams multiple benches within this/these room(s). Special arrangements will be made for differently abled persons.

The Training Rooms may be used to view live streaming proceedings for authorised persons.

Training Rooms must be accessible to all diverse users.