Students Visit Orissa High Court to Have A First-Hand Knowledge Of Various Aspects of Judicial Functioning

Cuttack: The High Court of Orissa today organized a visit of twenty five students of Class –XI & XII from D.A.V Public School, Unit – VIII, Bhubaneswar to its premises.

On the Children’s Day, 2021, the premises of High Court were, for the first time, opened for children. Since then students of many institutions including hearing and speech impaired and visually challenged children have visited the High Court and its allied institutions like Odisha State Legal Services Authority and Odisha Judicial Academy.

On 10th September students of Class –XI & XII from D.A.V Public School, Unit – VIII, Bhubaneswar and their teachers visited the High Court premises at Cuttack.

Lawyers Sagarika Sahoo and Sailen Das were present on the occasion. They explained various aspects of judicial functioning to the students. The students saw the Chief Justice’s Courts and Chambers in the Heritage Building and the New Building of the High Court, Judges’ Library and the Conference Halls. They put queries which were answered by the lawyers.

The students were shown video clips of swearing-in-ceremony of Judges and explained the procedure involved therein. Video clip of the hearing of one Public Interest Litigation was also played for viewing of the students in the Chief Justice’s court room. The students also visited Aain Seva Bhawan which houses the Odisha State Legal Services Authority and the High Court’s Arbitration and Mediation Centers where they were sensitized about the Alternative Dispute Redressal (ADR) mechanism and its contribution in redressal of the grievances of poor litigants.

At Odisha Judicial Academy, they also interacted with Justice Arindam Sinha, who discussed on Criminal Jurisprudence and said it is human interest oriented. He further stated that the presumption of innocence is a cardinal principle of criminal jurisprudence and basic right of the accused. Justice Sinha also discussed about the writ jurisdiction of High Courts and Supreme Court of India. He said that the writ jurisdiction under Article 226 is much wider than the writ jurisdiction of Supreme Court under Article 32 in as much as under Article 226 one can directly move the High Court on violation of both legal and fundamental rights but under Article 32 one can directly move the Supreme Court only on violation on fundamental rights.

During discussion, Justice Arindam Sinha conveyed a message to the students to develop a sense of originality within them. He stressed that students should endeavor to explore the hidden talents instead of making themselves slaves to gadgets like mobile phones.

The purpose of organizing such visits is to bring transparency about the real functioning of judiciary which is different from the myths prevailing in the society.