Judges Are Ahead In Carrying Out Paperless Courts; Lawyers Have To Be Brought On Board: Orissa High Court CJ Muralidhar

While speaking on the occasion, Justice Muralidhar said that Judges are ahead in carrying out the goals of paperless Courts, whereas lawyers have to be brought on board. He acknowledged the difficulties in adapting to the technological advancements and expressed hope that people will adapt to it within some time.

He stressed on the importance of technology and said,

"Technology has made so many things possible. Even today's event where we have 30 District Courts, the District Judges, Judicial Officers from various cadres of Odisha joining us online for this inauguration ceremony… All of this taking place through technological possibilities. [It] tells us that technology can be harnessed to improve working of the Courts, the efficiency of the system as a whole and ultimately, all of this is to deliver better quality justice to the people."

He informed that Odisha started on the path of digitization of records early in 2020 in the High Court and subsequently, established the four Digitization Centres in four districts, i.e. Cuttack, Sambalpur, Balasore and Berhampur. The learning from that experiment encouraged the Court to expand the activities. He stated that those centres are now called Digitization Hubs, because one hub will cater to the needs of its neighbouring districts. He underlined that the overall idea is to reduce the holding of paper in the Courts.

"We preserve the paper that is there in our Courts but we also progressively stop the inflow of paper into our Courts. So, all this ties up with our establishing e-filing stations in every one of the 30 districts in Odisha and perhaps in some of the outlying stations as well. Training the lawyers in e-filing, training the staff, training the lawyers' clerks… the training has happened by using our wonderful resource of young judicial officers who are master-trainers… Today, anywhere in Odisha, it is possible for a District Court lawyer to file a case in the High Court of Orissa and to appear from wherever he or she is. I can confidently say, this is happening seamlessly", he added

He announced that the paperless Courts in Odisha, which were inaugurated by the former CJI U.U. Lalit in September this year in which Justice Chandrachud had also joined as a guest, will be expanded very soon.

"We are going to give touchscreen laptops to every judicial officer of Odisha. The idea is that there will be a situation where any Judge anywhere in Odisha, if he/she chooses to, can become a paperless Court. This will transform the very architecture of the Courts, how we organise spaces and paper within the Courts. The Judges are ahead. The lawyers have to be brought on board. We are hand-holding the lawyers. It is never made compulsory for the lawyers. We know progress in amongst the lawyers adapting to change will take some time. We are prepared to wait. This is the way that we will go forward in Odisha, where we will harness technology to deliver better quality justice."

He conveyed that technology is being utilised to preserve history. The Digitization Centres will be used for digitizing fragile records, i.e. the records which are as old as 150 years and sometimes more than 200 years old.

"We have a Judicial History Project, where not only the fragile records of the High Court but also the District Courts will be preserved, digitized and will be made as a resource. Odisha has taken the lead in this Judicial History Project as well. Through this entire process of digitization, we have learnt a lot about how it is possible to make the Courts and the information held by them more accessible, to preserve it better and to preserve it for a lifetime."

He said that the High Court is trying the best to implement the advices as rendered by the e-committee of the Apex Court. He also conveyed that the Court is constantly reviewing the procedures and practices to make sure that all the concerns about privacy, predictability and dependability are not compromised.

He expressed gratitude to the e-Committee of the Apex Court, which has constantly guided the Orissa High Court in taking all the e-initiatives. He also gave credits to the Information Technology Committee of the High Court led by Justice S. Talapatra and all the member-judges of the Record Room Digitization Centre (RRDC) committee and the District Judges of the State for successfully rolling out the e-initiatives.