A Division Bench of the Punjab and Haryana High Court has directed the Chandigarh administration to immediately place before the Centre a concept note proposing additional construction of about 20.5 lakh sq ft, giving fresh impetus to the High Court’s long-pending expansion plan.“It would be appropriate to direct the Chandigarh administration to ensure that the first concept note proposing an additional construction area of 20.5 lakh sq ft is forwarded to the Government of India well before January 20 to enable its inclusion in the International Management Plan,” the Bench of Chief Justice Sheel Nagu and Justice Sanjiv Berry observed.The UT administration was further directed to email the concept note directly to the authorities concerned, in addition to sending it to the Government of India, which was in turn directed to forward the concept note to the Fondation Le Corbusier by January 21.The Punjab and Haryana High Court’s original building, an iconic structure designed by Le Corbusier, has been declared a UNESCO World Heritage site as part of the Capitol Complex in Chandigarh. The entire Capitol Complex, including the HC block, stands nominated and protected under the World Heritage framework. As a result, any development or intervention around the World Heritage site is required to be referred to the World Heritage Committee for its advice in terms of Clause 172 of the Operational Guidelines for the Implementation of the World Heritage Convention. In keeping with this requirement, the concept note for the proposed expansion of the HC complex is required to be submitted to the Fondation Le Corbusier.The Bench added that the parties before the court were in consensus that they were racing against time, as the last date for submission of the concept note to the Fondation Le Corbusier was January 21. The directions were issued during the hearing of a public interest petition filed by Vinod Dhatterwal and others against the Union of India and other respondents.At the outset, Chandigarh’s senior standing counsel and senior advocate Amit Jhanji informed the Bench that two concept notes along with drawings had been prepared — one proposing 20.5 lakh sq ft of additional construction and the other 19.8 lakh sq ft.Senior counsel appearing for the Punjab and Haryana High Court Bar Association as well as the PIL petitioner both backed the larger proposal. The matter has been listed again for hearing on January 21 and directed to be placed on the urgent list.The latest development builds on momentum generated earlier this week, when the Chandigarh administration issued a letter of intent to a consultant for conducting a heritage impact assessment and preparing the concept note.The High Court has repeatedly flagged the crippling impact of infrastructure shortages. Despite a sanctioned strength of 85 judges, only 69 courtrooms are functional. “This dissuades the High Court from working at full strength,” Chief Justice Nagu had earlier observed, urging the administration “to take a pragmatic view and allow the High Court to expand in terms of infrastructure by giving approval to the holistic plan, be it restrictively”.In a detailed order passed on December 5, 2025, the Bench described the shortage of space as “extreme”, tracing the expansion plan back to 2014. Though the detailed project report was approved in principle in July 2020, the project remained stalled over heritage objections even as pendency and judges’ strength steadily rose. The court had also recorded that Registry staff were working in cramped and poorly ventilated rooms, with files and records lying on the floor.