Chandigarh, Aug. 20 -- Facing acute shortage of space, the Punjab and Haryana high court (HC) has directed the UT administration to explore the possibility of allotting two floors of the old secretariat building in Sector 9 for housing some branches of the HC. The court was hearing a public interest litigation (PIL) by the high court employees association secretary Vinod Dhatterwal, highlighting the space constraints at the HC and possible sites for additional courtrooms and facilities. As against the sanctioned strength of 85, the HC has only 69 operational court-rooms. This dissuades it from working full strength. "We have been informed that the offices of secretariat of UT Chandigarh have been shifted to a newly constructed building, leaving the erstwhile building partially vacant. This court thus directs the UT administration to explore the possibility of allotting two floors for housing the branches of the HC, which are facing acute shortage of space in Sector 1, by filing an affidavit in this regard," said a division bench headed by chief justice Sheel Nagu and justice Sanjiv Berry. The UT administration has been stressing on setting up a new HC complex in Sarangpur, where, it says, over 40 acres could be allotted for construction of the new court complex. But the court had earlier expressed its apprehension about the traffic congestion on the road leading to Sarangpur from Chandigarh as PGIMER chowk remains clogged for most parts of the day. On Tuesday, however, the court refrained from making any comments on the alternative sites. Asking the administration to adopt a "facilitative stance" rather than an adversarial one, the court held: "It goes without saying that the judiciary is the third pillar of democracy which can function effectively only when the other two pillars - executive and legislature - work in tandem with the judiciary. The edifice of democracy will crumble if any of the three pillars is weakened. We hope, expect and pray to God that UT administration shall rise to the occasion to ameliorate the genuine grievance of the HC of acute shortage of space." The matter will now come up for hearing on August 22....