SC Steps in to Protect 135-Year-Old Central Secretariat Library
The Supreme Court of India has taken suo motu judicial notice of the proposed shifting and potential displacement of the historic 135-year-old Central Secretariat Library (CSL), located inside Shastri Bhawan in New Delhi. The iconic government complex is scheduled for demolition under the expansive Central Vista redevelopment master plan. Recognizing the immense cultural and archival heritage at stake, a division bench comprising Justice P.V. Sanjay Kumar and Justice Sanjeev Sachdeva has scheduled an urgent hearing on Monday, October 5, 2026, to assess whether the administrative arrangements made by the Union government provide adequate safeguards for one of the nation's most venerable institutional repositories.
A 135-Year Heritage Repository: From Imperial Secretariat to India’s Second Largest Library
Operating under the administrative supervision of the Union Ministry of Culture, the Central Secretariat Library holds a storied past. It was originally founded in Calcutta in 1891 as the Imperial Secretariat Library to serve administrative research and governance documentation. Following the transfer of British India's imperial capital to Delhi in 1911, the institution relocated northward and found its permanent home in Shastri Bhawan in 1969. Standing second in size and archival importance only to the National Library in Kolkata, the CSL spans roughly 5,500 square metres across four specialized floors, curating an irreplaceable collection of more than 850,000 volumes, rare manuscripts, official administrative gazettes, and post-independence governance records.
The Space Allocation Crisis: 5,500 Square Metres Squeezed Into Two Tiny Rooms
The controversy that caught the apex court's attention stems from a severe disparity between the space required to maintain the library and the alternate accommodation offered by urban planning authorities. While the Ministry of Culture originally requisitioned approximately 5,466 square metres of dedicated built-up area within the newly conceptualized Central Secretariat to accommodate the entire inventory and modern research reading rooms, the Directorate of Estates under the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs proposed allocating merely two rooms totaling around 600 square metres (300 square metres each) inside Kartavya Bhawan-2. This radical downscaling sparked deep alarm among historians, researchers, and civil servants regarding the physical preservation of fragile historical texts.
Irreplaceable National Archives at Stake: Ministry of Culture Flags Relocation Risks
Formal communications sent by the Ministry of Culture as early as February highlighted that the allotted space is grossly insufficient to house the library’s extensive collection, technical equipment, and public research infrastructure, making a safe and unified transfer virtually impossible under existing plans. Beyond rare pre-independence books, the library safeguards unique primary source material chronicling the Indian freedom struggle, legislative debates, and key institutional milestones that shaped the modern Indian republic. The Supreme Court's intervention brings national focus to the balance between urban administrative redevelopment and the urgent need to protect centuries of irreplaceable documentary heritage in the heart of the national capital.
