Madras HC Chief Justice turns photographer during heritage walk on court campus

Madras High Court Chief Justice K.R. Shriram turned photographer on Saturday (December 7, 2024) using his smartphone — and guess what he shot? The majestic Court Hall No. 1, which he presides over every day, clothed in black robes, upholding all the formalities attached to the court proceedings.

Madras High Court Chief Justice K.R. Shriram turned photographer on Saturday (December 7, 2024) using his smartphone — and guess what he shot? The majestic Court Hall No. 1, which he presides over every day, clothed in black robes, upholding all the formalities attached to the court proceedings.

This weekend, the Chief Justice and his companion judges shunned those formalities and visited the court campus in casual attire with their family members for a heritage walk organised by senior counsel N.L. Rajah, a historian of the 132-year-old court complex.

The Madras High Court was established through a Letters Patent granted by Queen Victoria on June 26, 1862. It was shifted to the present heritage building only in 1892 and since then, the red building constructed in Indo-Saracenic style has remained as the highest seat of the State judiciary.

The building was constructed in a record time of four years between 1888 and 1892, despite many additions to the original plan of construction. J.W. Brassington, the consulting architect to the then British government, had initially planned to construct the building with 11 court halls at an estimate cost of ₹9.45 lakh. 

Of the 11 court halls, six were meant for the High Court, four for the Small Causes court, and one for the City Civil Court. Subsequently, it was decided to construct an additional building to house the lawyers’ chambers and connect it to the main building with a walkway on the first floor. This increased the total expenditure to ₹12,98,163.

Almost all the construction materials, except the heavy steel girders and some ornamental tiles, were procured locally to construct the most striking structure both inside and out. The government brick fields supplied the bricks and terracotta articles, and artisans trained at the School of Arts in Chennai executed most of the work.

Interestingly, the court campus also boasts of not just one but two lighthouses because of its proximity to the harbour. A 125-foot-tall standalone light house was already in existence when the architects fixed one more dioptric light on the 142-foot-high main tower of the court building. It raised the total height of the tower to 175 feet.