Penang’s High Court building in need of repairs

KUALA LUMPUR (Aug 20): Lawyers are demanding that Penang’s High Court building (pictured) in Light Street here be repaired as they feel that it is already dangerous to people working there.

A lawyer who spoke to The Star on condition of anonymity said repairs and maintenance work have to be carried out soon to “prevent any untoward incidents”.

“When you walk on the wooden floorboards, they creak. Something needs to be done. It has been like that for too long,” he said.

He added that the left main staircase of the building had been off limits to users for more than a year.

“The staircase is only one thing. If you are on the first floor of the building, you will see that certain parts of the wooden floors of the walkways have been covered to prevent people from walking on them,” The Star reported him saying.

The Star visited the building recently and saw striped tape cordoning off sections of the first floor near High Courts Four and Five of the colonial building.

Plaster was also breaking off from the building’s exterior but no major cracks were spotted, reported the English daily.

The state of the building has also caught the attention of lawmaker R.S.N. Rayer who said the courthouse is in dire need of repairs.

“The courthouse is in a precarious condition for anyone who goes there. I hope repairs of the building will take place soon,” The Star reported the Jelutong MP saying.

Lawyer Sukhindarpal Singh also hoped that repairs to the building can be undertaken soon.

“It would not make a good impression to the public with the state it is in now. We must avoid the areas that have been blocked off,” he told The Star.

The Palladian-style building was designed by John Henry McCallum, the Surveyor-General of the Straits Settlements, and completed in 1903.  

It was constructed at a cost of 206,678 Straits dollars.

The courthouse went through a significant renovation in 2005.