English
Courts
Panaji [Panagi/Pangim/Panjim/Nova Goa], Goa, India
Equipment and Infrastructures
Two courts were situated in Panaji under the judicial organisation of the Estado da Índia: the Court of Appeals and the Court of the Islands Comarca. The Court of Appeals functioned in the old Guethal House, where later the Public Works building was erected, which still exists. In August 1878 it was established that the building under construction on the old Rua Afonso de Albuquerque would be used to house the appeals court. A decision was also made to make new internal divisions so that the structure could also house the prosecutor’s office, the treasury and the records office. The work will have been finished at the end of that same year. The two-floor building is rectangular and occupies a corner of a block, though not abutting the adjacent buildings. With their ogival windows, the south and west façades are adorned with geometric motifs, some influenced by features used in the Custom House building next door. The north and east façades are not decorated, which accentuates their secondary nature. It is possible that the second floor windows were full- length and have been partially closed. Despite the Court’s modern aspect due to the neo- Gothic windows, the lack of dignity of the Goa Appeals Court installations is somewhat strange, given that its jurisdiction covered all provinces of the Orient. This is only justified by the fact that the building was not built from scratch for this purpose. Goa is nowadays served by an extension of the High Court of Mumbai, which meanwhile moved to the installations of the former Afonso de Albuquerque Lyceum in Altinho. The Judicial Court of the Islands Comarca is situated in the area north of Fontainhas, at the site where the civil police headquarters and public prison functioned. The plan to transform the latter building was done in financial year 1888-9. The work was meant to make use of the walls and floors of the old structure. But reports of the sale of stones from the barracks, referring to the dismantling of the building, lead one to believe that it was totally demolished. The work was reported finished in March 1890. But in 1901 the court was said to still lack its own installations, the respective construction being a priority. Thus, and despite the earlier construction work, the police are thought to have continued to occupy the space. In February 1924 the situation was the same; the construction of a new building was therefore budgeted to house the court and other public departments in similar situations. In June of that year a new building was acquired on the Avenida Marginal (former Avenida da República) for the police and it was decided that the court would finally move in to the building earmarked for it more than 20 years earlier. The move must have occurred in 1925. A court still functions here today. The building is arranged around a patio, now partly closed, and is symmetric with respect to the entrance. It has two floors, with full-length windows on the upper floor; the façade is divided into three sections by rusticated pillars.