Cuttack: As many as 50 Paperless Courts covering 23 districts of Odisha were inaugurated in virtual mode by Dr. Justice S. Muralidhar, Chief Justice, High Court of Orissa in presence of Justice S. Talapatra, Chairman, Artificial Intelligence and Information Technology Committee of the High Court of Orissa.
Members of the Artificial Intelligence and Information Technology Committee and the Judges of the High Court of Orissa were also present.
The function was attended by Advocate General Mr. Ashok Kumar Parija and Chief Executive Officer, OCAC were also present on the occasion. District Judges and judicial officers of the state joined the event through virtual mode.
On 17th September, 2022, 34 Paperless Courts covering all the 30 Districts had been inaugurated by the Chief Justice of India. In the Valedictory Ceremony of the National Conference on Digitization, eInitiatives and Paperless Courts held at Cuttack on 5th and 6th May, 2023, the Chief Justice on behalf of the High Court of Orissa had pledged to open 100 Paperless Courts in the State within a period of three months.
With the inauguration of 50 new Paperless Courts, the High Court of Orissa has come good on its pledge and the number of Paperless Courts in the District Judiciary of the State has reached 84. In near future the 50 more Paperless Courts are planned to be inaugurated.
Speaking on the occasion Dr. S. Muralidhar said inauguration of 50 paperless courts in the second phase is yet another milestone crossed by the Odisha judiciary and this is a work in progress and the next 50 paperless courts will be made functional in a month’s time. He said as preparatory to the paperless courts training has been imparted to judicial officers across the state by the master-trainer judicial officers and the technical team headed by the Central Project Coordinator. The Chief Justice complimented the judiciary for taking the lead in adapting technology for functioning of Courts. He said COVID pandemic caused acceleration of use of technology in judiciary and technology would change the way Judicial Officers approach their work.
Sharing his experience the Chief Justice said that working in Paperless Court makes it much easier for the Judge to access the relevant documents in digital case records which is far more difficult in voluminous physical records and it leaves a positive impact on the mindset of the Judge. Citing the problem of digital divide among the lawyers the Chief Justice said free bookmarked softcopies of the paper books supplied by the lawyers would be provided to them which would be a great incentive for the younger lawyers to get on to the e-mode. He emphasized on the impact of Paperless Court on the reconfiguration of space and the whole architecture of the Court. He said all the measures of digitization, e-filing and paperless courts are to make access to justice more affordable, more efficient and more effective. Dr Muralidhar thanked the OCAC for the technical support.
Justice S. Talapatra said the judiciary believes in the exercise of ethical expansion of technology in judiciary and stressed upon the need of using technology for benefit of the poor. Justice Talapatra congratulated the judicial officers who have come forward to make their courts paperless. He said Odisha Judiciary has been harnessing technology to make justice accessible to the common citizens and this has received accolades from various quarters.
Dr. Justice Sanjeeb Kumar Panigrahi presented the vote of thanks and said while the western countries are still struggling to make paperless courts functional, the vision and guidance of Dr. S. Muralidhar has made Odisha achieve this milestone even in district level.
With inauguration of these 50 Paperless Courts Ganjam has become the first District in Odisha to have all the Courts paperless.
Issues in traditional courts and need of Paperless Courts India has a multilevel court system with high backlog of cases in courts. Cumbersome paperwork in the courts is one of the important reasons of delay in disposal of cases. Documents, pleadings, court fees, miscellaneous petitions and memos are filed physically, and some of them in duplicate. As the years pass, the case file accumulates with the petitions, memos, documents and their copies, citations of case laws etc. making it increasingly difficult to organize and requires more manpower and storage space. Due to the frequent handling of documents, they are also prone to damage and being misplaced. Moreover, the handwritten order sheets and depositions fade away with passage of time making them illegible and hard to decipher.
In appeals, case files become more voluminous with the addition of the lower Court’s records and much time is lost in requisitioning the lower Court’s records by the Appellate Courts. During the hearing, a judge and the court staff painstakingly deal with these voluminous records. Be it the disposed of cases or the pending cases, to keep the case files safely is a costly and cumbersome process. These practices result in billions of sheets of paper being wasted each year when efforts are being made in every sphere to preserve water and trees and to reduce the carbon footprint.
With the integration of technology in the court work management, the concept of “paperless courts” has been envisioned to address these issues and to provide speedy justice. A paperless court, as the name suggests, is a court that functions without the physical records, where judges rely on digitized court records and use technology for facilitating the court proceedings. A paperless court strives to modernize the work process of the judiciary by eliminating the need for physical records and the inherent liabilities associated with storage congestion, risk of misplacing, and retrieving documents. In a traditional court, case information is available to a judge through a case information system, but in a paperless court the entire case record is available to a judge in a portable device, making it convenient to access the relevant part of the record without browsing through the entire file, thereby saving time and making the workflow more efficient. It also reduces work pressure on court staff from organizing the record chronologically. The concept of paperless court also strives to lessen the amount of time consumed for obtaining copies of the documents as the physical movement of the case file is not required for the said purpose.
The transition from a traditional court to paperless court not only depends on digitization of existing case records but also adopting e-filing of new cases. The process of digitisation involves sending of case records as per cause list, pre- scanning procedure, scanning of case records, quality check of scanned pages, meta data entry, book marking of scanned pages under different heads for easy access and finally the integration of the scanned records with the cause list. The Courts in Odisha have adopted efiling 3.0. The litigants and advocates can file the cases through e-filing 3.0 and the said cases shall be directly consumed by the Courts thereby obviating the need of physical filing. The e-filing module has integrated the payment of e-court fees which is not only economical but also environment friendly.
There is also provision for serving summons through email to the defendants. The pre-trial procedures can be accelerated by utilizing the aforesaid paperless modes. Similarly, during trial the depositions of witnesses can be recorded in paperless mode and their signatures can be obtained digitally obviating the requirement of paper depositions. In paperless Courts it is very convenient for judges to have easy access to the bulky case records which are segregated in different parts and the relevant portions are available with a click on the book mark. The touch screen devices enable the judges to take down notes and highlight portions of the pleadings and evidence found to be relevant during the course of arguments which are of tremendous use while preparing orders/judgments.