Orissa HC has shown Indian judiciary a new direction: Chief Justice of India

CUTTACK: Chief Justice of India (CJI) UU Lalit on Saturday lauded the e-initiatives taken by the Orissa High Court to make the justice delivery system more accessible, transparent and effective.Inaugurating 34 paperless courts in all 30 districts of the State, the CJI, who is also the Head of National Legal Services Authority, termed Orissa High Court’s efforts an example for others.  

“The underbelly of a court is the record room, which can be full of rats. It is a kind of physical torture for somebody who is in the job of a record keeper. The underbelly is now getting a different shape completely. The high court has shown the Indian judiciary new direction and new light. I wish this gets replicated in every court in the country,” the CJI added, while appreciating the voluntary efforts of the judicial officers for coming forward for paperless courts. 

The CJI stressed the importance of adopting technological advancements by judiciary as they have made the processes more transparent and seamless.Speaking about the evolution of IT in Indian judiciary as part of the celebration of 75th year of the high court, he said Covid-19 pandemic has taught the world to change, modernise and modulate. “Before that I never imagined that there could be filing from a small town straight away to the Supreme Court. Technological advancement has made it very easy. With paperless courts we will have a clean environment, easy accessibility and good communication techniques. The advantages are numerous,” he said.  

Justice DY Chandrachud, who heads the e-Committee of the Supreme Court, was also all praise for the e-initiatives of the Orissa High Court. Terming the court’s initiatives as ‘path breaking’ for the rest of India, he said about 75 lakh judgments of various high courts have been made available in the National Judicial Data Grid (NJDG) for easy access of lawyers and judges.  

Chief Justice S Muralidhar of Orissa High Court announced that all the judicial officers in the State would soon be provided with touch screen laptops to enable them to function paperless. Stressing the need of paperless courts for balancing the ecosystem, he said paperless courts in district judiciary is a significant milestone for the Indian judiciary.  A special postal cover and cancellation cachet along with six picture post cards featuring the high court were released by the CJI in presence of Chief Post Master General (Odisha Circle) Suvendu Kumar Swain on the occasion.