Looking at the crush of men, machines and whimsically placed traffic barricades on the roads surrounding the Combined Courts complex in Tiruchi, it is hard to believe that there was a time when District Court judges would hop on to their bicycles, with their box of the day’s judgments secured on the carrier, and ride the short distance to the court from their official residence near the present-day campus of the Campion Anglo-Indian Higher Secondary School in the Cantonment area.
As it marks its centenary this month (the District Court House was inaugurated on August 16, 1919 by Justice J G Burn, who had also presided over its foundation-laying ceremony in 1917), there are many such long-forgotten nuggets of information about this stately public building, considered to be one of its kind in the region.
Built along the lines of the London District and Sessions Court facing the Uyyakondan channel, this landmark also has a turret clock manufactured by Potts of Leeds in UK.
“The District Court House was planned and sketched by the Public Works Department along with the local contractor A Thatha Pillai, under the guidance of English judge H O D Harding,” says M S Vinodh, an advocate who has documented the building’s history for an in-house newsletter.
Tragically, Harding was stabbed to death below the portico of the older court house on February 22, 1916, by a convict for a judgement that he had delivered.
The incident led to all judges of the Lower Courts being provided with police protection, and later, with enhanced transport facilities. Harding’s subordinates installed a stone plaque in his memory within the court complex, and subsequent generations of lawyers continue to pay homage to the slain judge in a prayer ceremony there every year.
- The clock tower is perhaps the most photographed part of the District Court house in Tiruchi, but not much is known about the grand timepiece that adorns it.
- Not many know that it has even found mention in the 2005 book Potts of Leeds: Five Generations of Clockmakers . “In 1920 Mr Alfred Inman commissioned William Potts & Sons Limited of Leeds, England to supply a turret clock for the new District Court being built in Tiruchi,” writes the book’s author and the founder’s great great grandson Michael Potts, in an email interview.
- The company, the last firm of clockmakers to receive the royal warrant from Queen Victoria, had already supplied different clocks to Cooke & Kelvey in Calcutta principally for the railways.
- Potts adds that the large quarter-chiming Tiruchi clock was completed in 1921, and supplied with three solid cast iron dials of 5 ft diameter, painted black and gilded. It had a pin wheel dead beat escapement, capable of considerable accuracy.
- “The clock is also a flat bed, which is the term used to describe then the latest form of clock frame, as developed for the Palace of Westminster. Two bells were supplied by Taylors of Loughborough,” writes Potts, who visited Tiruchi with his wife in 1996 to see the (then-functioning) clock while researching his book.
- “It is with some sadness that I hear that the clock has been stopped for nearly 20 years. I sincerely hope it can be restored for the benefit of future generations,” he concludes.
The new court complex in Tiruchi functions from what was formerly the official residence of the Bishop and the site was where Reginald Heber, the second Bishop of Calcutta, drowned while bathing on April 3, 1826. “The present compound was exchanged for the court’s earlier location (the present-day Bishop Higher Secondary School, at Puthur), where the trial of freedom fighter and Panchalankurichi chieftain Veerapandiya Kattabomman was held in 1799,” says Vinodh.
In its heyday, leading lawyers from other Bars like Alladi Krishnaswami Iyer, Gopalsami Iyengar and V L Ethiraj came here to argue cases. The court had its own stellar set of legal minds like K Ganapathy Iyer, K S Ramakrishna Iyer, K Rajagopalachari and Aangarai ‘Meesai’ Viswanatha Iyer, among many others.
Raj-era architecture
Set within a compound of 13,51,600 square feet, the heritage District Court house has two storeys, with the main hall on the first floor. Interestingly, the chair of the District Judge is older than the building — it dates back to 1896, and is still in use after being shifted to the new premises.
In what seems to be an achievement by today’s real estate standards, the building was completed within two years of the foundation being laid.
The high walls were constructed with bricks and mortar, a local building material created by crushing limestone, eggs, sand and ‘kadukkai’ (Haritaki) pods. With a double square teakwood stairwell, Madras tile roofing and skylight windows, the court house clearly was designed to accommodate the public in large numbers. Changing over from manually-operated cloth ‘punkhas’ at its inception to electric fans in later years, the building has managed to stay well-ventilated through a century.
Though much of the courts’ business is conducted from the modern premises, some of the older offices have been retained in the heritage building.
The inner hallways are a fine example of British Raj-era architecture. Photo: M. Moorthy/THE HINDU
Among these, on the ground floor, is the cavernous Records Room that stores case files and other legal documents from 1912.
“We have suit registers, recruitment notices, and other papers from all courts up to Manapparai jurisdiction,” says a clerk, one of 7 staff here. Initially, the court’s territorial authority extended up to Thanjavur, Ariyalur, Pudukottai and Karur. Now it has shrunken to that of the present day Tiruchi district’s 11 Taluks.
The wide shelves (made with iron imported from England to deter termite infestation) seem to have no filing system at present. “It takes us a day or two to locate case papers, but we are hoping to create a computerised database by scanning the documents soon,” says the clerk.
Custom-built court
The court hall upstairs has a dais that gave the judge a clear view of the front gate. “You cannot find this sort of custom-built court house anywhere else in Tamil Nadu,” says Ramesh Natarajan, president of the Tiruchi Bar Association. “Up to the 1980s, there used to be a concealed passage to take sentenced persons to the outpost of a police station away from the public eye. The hall’s acoustics are so well-designed that we didn’t need microphones to be heard,” he adds.
An ornate newel on the square staircase. Photo: M. Moorthy/THE HINDU
It is ironic that the court house isn’t being used as such in its centenary year; even its star, the turret clock, hasn’t been working fr over 20 years.
Many members of the legal fraternity in Tiruchi feel that part of the heritage structure could easily be made into a museum showcasing the changing role and face of the justice system.“From antique furniture, typewriters, quill pens that judges used to write their judgements, and official garments, there are a lot of things that we could preserve and exhibit,” says Natarajan.
Others suggest that the centenary celebrations should have been more vibrant, with perhaps a commemorative postal stamp to enshrine the institution in public memory.
