CJI DY Chandrachud Lauds Orissa HC CJ S Muralidhar For Setting Up VC Facilities In Every District

Chief Justice DY Chandrachud, while hearing a case seeking the constitution of a bench for the Himachal Pradesh High Court at Dharamshala, lauded the setting up of video conferencing facilities for every district in the State of Odisha by Chief Justice S Muralidhar of Orissa High Court. While stating that the Apex court could not direct the Himachal Pradesh High Court to set up a bench in Dharamshala, CJI Chandrachud suggested the petitioner to ask the High Court of Himachal Pradesh to set up a video conferencing facility on an administrative side.

Providing an example of video conferencing facilities in High Courts, the Chief Justice Chandrachud lauded the efforts of Chief Justice S Muralidhar. He said–

"Chief Justice Muralidhar in Odisha has set up video conferencing facilities for every district in the state. He has decentralised the system and now there are benches in each district of the state. So any district lawyer can appear through video conferencing in the High Court by the facilities."

In September last year, Justice Chandrachud, while delivering the keynote address at the First Anniversary of the Record Room Digitisation Centre ('RRDC') at the Odisha Judicial Academy, Cuttack had said–

"The Orissa High Court has been truly in the 'forefront' in implementing initiatives of the E-Committee of the Supreme Court of India."

He had highlighted that transformation of justice delivery system required the building up of Court capabilities that were scalable, stable and crucially designed for the use both by laypersons and lawyers and added–

"Today, from that perspective, I am very proud to witness the first of the many transformations in action at the Orissa High Court, which are being spearheaded by Chief Justice Muralidhar."