Lawyers’ Day Observed at Orissa High Court to Commemorate Birth Anniversary of Utkala Gourava Madhusudan Das

Cuttack: As part of the 75th year of the High Court of Orissa, the Lawyers’ Day was observed in a special way on Friday in a function organized at Odisha Judicial Academy.

Lawyers’ Day is observed every year by the legal fraternity of Odisha commemorating the birth anniversary of Utkala Gourava Madhusudan Das and coincidentally, this was the 175th birth anniversary of the doyen when the High Court is celebrating its 75th year.

29 senior lawyers of the High Court Bar Association who have completed 50 years in legal profession and the former and present Advocates General of Odisha were felicitated and 18 District Court lawyers who have been adjudged Lawyers of the Year-2022, were also felicitated in the function presided over by Justice Dipak Misra, former Chief Justice of India in the presence of Dr. S. Muralidhar, Chief Justice and the Judges of the High Court of Orissa. Arvind P. Datar, Senior Advocate, Supreme Court of India was the Chief Speaker in the function. Advocate General Ashok Kumar Parija, President of the High Court Bar Association Dharanidhar Nayak, the Deputy Solicitor General of India for the High Court of Orissa Prasanna Kumar Parhi, Senior Advocates, office bearers and members of the High Court Bar Association attended the function.

To pay homage to Madhusudan Das his statue in the High Court premises was garlanded earlier on the day by the Chief Justice, Judges, Advocate General, President of the High Court Bar Association and Deputy Solicitor General in presence of lawyers.

Acknowledging the contribution of Bar in its successful journey of 75 years, the High Court felicitated Bijoy Krushna Mohanty, Jaganath Patnaik, Asok Kumar Mohanty, Surya Prasad Misra, former Advocates General and Ashok Kumar Parija, present Advocate General. Besides, the lawyers having completed 50 years in legal profession- Brajabandhu Biswal, Bijoy Kumar Behura, Bhaktahari Mohanty, Nityananda Mohanty, Damodar Prasad Mohanty, Sachindra Nath Kar, Durga Charan Mohanty, Narasingha Misra, Narasingha Patra, Arun Kumar Mishra, Guru Prasad Mohanty, G. Ananda Rao Dora, Brajasundar Das, Umakanta Nanda, Ajit Rath, Bijaya Nanda Mahanti, Basudev Panda, Jugal Kishore Tripathy, Satya Sundar Das, Debi Prasanna Parija, Saktidhar Das, Mahitosh Sinha, Durga Prasad Sahoo, Ramakanta Mohapatra, Kaniska Kumar Rath and Surya Narayan Satpathy.

Besides, “Lawyer of the Year-2022” awards were presented to 18 District Court lawyers- Pramod Kumar Bohidar from Balangir, Rajaram Mohapatra from Balasore, Sankar Prasad Puruseth from Bargarh, Seema Mohapatra from Bhadrak, Soumya Sucharita Deo from Cuttack, Hrusikesh Pradhan from Ganjam, Sandeep Samal from Jajpur, Birendra Satpathy from Jharsuguda, Sachida Nanda Sahu from Kalahandi, Ananta Prasad Polai from Kendrapara, Archana Dash from Kendujhar, Deepankar Panigrahy from Koraput, Bibhu Assisdan Sagaria from Malkangiri, Husna Nesan, Mahavir Prasad from Mayurbhanj, Amitav Mishra from Nayagarh, Pramodini Mahapatra from Rayagada and Satyabrata Dash from Sambalpur. The said lawyers were selected on the basis of their work for the entire calendar year of 2022 evaluated by the jury consisting of the District Judge, the Chief Judicial Magistrate and 3 Senior Members of the Bars from the respective districts having experience of 20 years or more. The criteria for selection were the number of cases handled by the lawyer independently during the year, number of such cases e-filed by the Lawyer during the year and the number of judgments/final orders in contested cases handled independently by the lawyer during the year. It was also stipulated that the lawyer should have conducted at least one trial in civil or criminal case entirely by himself or herself, during the year by appearing for any of the parties. This is for the second consecutive year that these awards have been presented to district court lawyers which unique in the country.

Justice Sangam Kumar Sahoo delivered the welcome address and discussed about the contribution of Utkala Gourava Madhusudan Das in the Odia language movement and formation of the state of Odisha. He spoke about the contribution of the veteran lawyers in building efficient young lawyers.

Speaking on the occasion Dharanidhar Nayak and Ashok Kumar Parija lauded the gesture of the High Court in felicitating the veteran lawyers along with the young lawyers on the befitting occasion of lawyers’ day.

Delivering his talk as the chief speaker Arvind P. Datar congratulated the High Court of Orissa for the transformation it has undergone under the leadership of Dr S Muralidhar and said the High Court should be role model for the other High Courts for this transformation. He said presentation of the lawyer of the year awards will prove as incentive for the others to become good lawyers.

Sharing his personal experiences of the initial days he gave valuable inputs to the young lawyers. Mr Datar said legal profession is the finest profession where honesty pays and a lot depends on the lawyer’s merits. He urged the young lawyers for constant reading and adequate preparation and advised them to also lay emphasis on thinking of the possible methods of putting the case before the court. Emphasizing on the importance of English in the legal profession he advised the young lawyers to try and speak always in English in courts. He also advised them to emulate good qualities of the seniors, constantly read and learn and remain updated with the law journals and urged them for daily introspection and set their future targets by asking themselves ‘Who can I be’.

Speaking on the occasion Dr. Justice S. Muralidhar said the lawyers contribute to the development of law and role of a lawyer is critical in shaping the course of justice. He said conduct, court etiquette, general reputation and integrity are very important for a lawyer. He added, in adversarial system it is very easy to focus on winning a case at any cost keeping aside the ethics, to focus on achieving the end ignoring the means, but this tendency earns the bar a bad reputation. Justice Muralidhar said a judge easily makes out by the conduct of a lawyer whether he can be trusted and because of the trust of the court the lawyer gets patient hearing which is ultimately for his client’s benefit.

He urged the young lawyers to seek advice of the seniors and follow their best practices and to make use of the resources immensely available.

Delivering the keynote address Justice Dipak Mishra said that the Bar is the fountainhead of knowledge and it builds the young lawyers. Justice Misra urged the younger generation Justice Misra urged the young lawyers to read the evolution of Greek civilization and to follow the seniors and inculcate their good attributes. He added, the Bar stands as a pillar in the democratic polity and because of the contribution of lawyers the liberty of people is protected.

Justice V. Narasingh proposed the vote of thanks. This is the first ever programme undertaken by the High Court to felicitate veteran lawyers.