Taking note of the deplorable state of district courts in the national capital, the Delhi high court on Wednesday asked lawyers and bar associations to lend a helping hand in keeping the court premises clean.

After perusing photographs of Karkardooma court, a division bench of Justice BD Ahmed and Justice Sanjeev Sachdeva expressed unhappiness about the condition of the court and said “lawyers are also responsible” for this.

“What is this nonsense? Why do lawyers and litigants do such littering? Lawyers themselves have to clean the premises,” the bench observed while looking at the photographs produced by advocate Sanjeev Sagar.

The court was hearing a public interest litigation by journalist Pankaj Yadav, seeking a stay on the construction of a water fountain at the Tis Hazari court complex and instead using the funds to provide basic facilities to disabled people and sanitary facilities in district courts for litigants.

The Tis Hazari court was being beautified, with the construction of a huge water fountain at the entrance for which the government was spending between Rs 50 lakh and Rs 1 crore, the plea said.

During the hearing, the court said lawyers should also clean their courts and “let’s make Delhi courts an example of clean courts”.

“All bar associations must be active in cleaning the courts too. Just don’t look for votes only,” the bench told the bar associations.

The court also granted a week’s time to the Public Works Department (PWD) to file a status report regarding the expenses and status of the fountain project at Tis Hazari, and facilities and lack of facilities in all district courts.

The high court also impleaded the Shahdara bar association and the Rohini bar association in the case and sought their responses by August 26.