Odisha: 40 More Paperless Courts Inaugurated

Cuttack: As many as 40 Paperless Courts in Phase-V were inaugurated in virtual mode on Tuesday by Dr. Justice Bidyut Ranjan Sarangi, Acting Chief Justice, High Court of Orissa in presence of Justice Krushna Ram Mohapatra, Chairperson, Artificial Intelligence & Information Technology Committee of the High Court of Orissa, Dr. Justice Sanjeeb Kumar Panigrahi, Member, Artificial Intelligence & Information Technology Committee of the High Court of Orissa and the Judges of the High Court of Orissa. District Judges and judicial officers of the state joined the event through virtual mode.

In the National Conference on Digitization, e-Initiatives and Paperless Courts held at Cuttack on 5th and 6th May, 2023, the Chief Justice of the High Court of Orissa had made a commitment to set up 100 Paperless Courts in the State within a period of three months, in addition to the 34 Paperless Courts existing by then. The commitment was fulfilled with inauguration of 107 Paperless Courts by August, 2023, but the work continued and 25 more Paperless Courts were set up in September, 2023. With the inauguration of 40 Paperless Courts in Phase-V on 31st October, 2023 the number of Paperless Courts in the District Judiciary of the State has now reached 199.

Speaking in the inaugural function Dr. Bidyut Ranjan Sarangi, Acting Chief Justice said 40 Paperless Courts in the fifth phase is yet another milestone crossed by the Odisha judiciary and this is a work in progress.

He said, the efforts of Dr. Justice S. Muralidhar as the Chief Justice of the High Court have led Odisha to become the leading State in the country in adaptation of technology in judiciary which has been time and again recognized by Chief Justice of India. The Acting Chief Justice thanked the entire State Judiciary to come forward in using technology for speedy and effective justice delivery and announced that more and more Courts will be made paperless every month till achieving the goal of making the entire judiciary paperless.

Justice Krushna Ram Mohapatra stressed upon the need of using technology for benefit of the poor. He congratulated the judicial officers who have come forward to make their courts paperless. Discussing about the disadvantages of handling physical records in day to dayCourt proceedings, Justice Mohapatra said paperless functioning has made Court proceedings much smoother. He said Odisha Judiciary has been using technology in the interest of the common citizens and this has been widely acknowledged. Justice Mohapatra urged the judicial officers and lawyers to adapt to technology in the interest of people seeking justice.

Dr. Justice Sanjeeb Kumar Panigrahi said the task of setting up Paperless Courts in District Judiciary was first taken up by the High Court of Orissa in September, 2021 with inauguration of 34 Paperless Courts and since then the High Court has been marching ahead being example for the rest of the country. Sharing the statistics regarding the appalling magnitude of deforestation for manufacture of paper, Justice Panigrahi informed that millions of trees are felled every year for the papers used by the judiciary. He said, making Courts paperless will have the effect of saving the environment which will be in the interest of mankind.

As preparatory to the Paperless Courts, digitization of pending as well as disposed of records in the districts has been taken up in the District Court Digitization Hubs and training has been imparted to judicial officers other stakeholders across the state by the mastertrainer judicial officers and the technical team headed by the Central Project Coordinator. Odisha has become the first State to have so many Paperless Courts in the district level. Paperless court has positive impact on the reconfiguration of space and the whole architecture and atmosphere of the Courts.