Chandigarh, Nov. 8 -- The Punjab and Haryana high court on Friday verbally directed UT administration's senior standing counsel to look into why there was a delay in handing over allotted houses to its judges. During the hearing of a matter related to the Union territory, the bench of chief justice Sheel Nagu and justice Sanjiv Berry sought to know from UT's senior standing counsel Amit Jhanji whether there was a delay in sprucing up the allotted houses due to a spending limit of Rs.1 crore on allotment of tenders for different works imposed by the Union ministry of home affairs (MHA). Though the exact number of houses, etc., was not discussed, it is reliably learnt that houses in question are of some judges transferred from other high courts. Responding to this, Jhanji told the court that the condition on allotment of tenders was in respect of all UTs and not just Chandigarh. However, this condition was not applicable on the works already initiated by the Chandigarh administration. "I am not fully aware of the facts about this. I will find out from the officers and apprise the court," Jhanji said as the court asked him for reasons behind the delay. In September, the UT administration had come out with a notification following MHA's intervention, stripping local officers of financial powers. Until then, HoDs could approve works up to Rs.1.5 crore, chief engineers up to Rs.3 crore, administrative secretaries up to Rs.20 crore, the chief secretary up to Rs.50 crore and the administrator up to Rs.100 crore. All these powers now stand revoked and officers need MHA's clearance for works above Rs.1.5 crore. The UT finance department had also issued a circular to all departments, directing them to prepare tender documents at the time of sending the project file to MHA. The goal is to enable the immediate issuance of work orders as soon as approval is received, avoiding any slowdown in project implementation. The measures introduced by the administration virtually brought the tendering processes to a halt. Meanwhile, Jhanji informed the court that the proceedings regarding expansion of high court, for which a panel has been set up under a high court judge, are underway and a report will be submitted soon. The high court had formed the panel to look into the issue of space crunch at the court complex. It is headed by a sitting high court judge and has met on a few occasions to discuss the issue....