Orissa High Court Releases Its Report Card For The Year 2023, Hosts Annual District Judges' Conference

The inauguration ceremony was held on Friday in the Odisha Judicial Academy, Cuttack which witnessed the presence of Chief Justice Chakradhari Sharan Singh as the Chief Guest. The Judges of the High Court along with District Judges and Chief Judicial Magistrates of all 30 districts of the State also took part in the event.

Speaking on the occasion, Justice Sashikanta Mishra compared the program to a cricketing event and said the Court has scored a 'hat-trick' as it held the Conference and also released the Annual Report for the third consecutive year.

Notably, the Court had resumed holding District Judges' Conference and releasing the Annual Report in the year 2022, under the guidance of the then Chief Justice Dr. S. Muralidhar. Since then it has been a consistent feature of the Court.

The High Court had become one of the first Courts in the country to publish its own yearly report highlighting not only the achievements but also the challenges and failures. The initiative was hailed at varied quarters as a wonder step towards judicial transparency.

While highlighting the importance of the Annual Report, Justice Mishra referred to an article published in the Indian Express authored by Chitrakshi Jain and Prashant Reddy T. In the said piece, the authors had welcomed the initiative taken by the High Court for placing itself under the public scrutiny.

Dr. Justice Sanjeeb Kumar Panigrahi called upon the District Judges to discuss on manifold issues faced by the District Judiciary, especially the challenges faced by it in adapting technology into the judicial works. He further said Orissa High Court has pioneered as far as adoption of paperless Court is concerned.

Justice Bibhu Prasad Routray introduced the officers about the agenda of the conference and asked the District Judges and CJMs to actively participate in the discussions and deliberations for finding out solutions to the challenges.

Justice Krushna Ram Mohapatra, the Chairperson of the Annual Report Committee acknowledged the contributions made by different persons for publication of the report, including the officers of the Registry and Research Assistants.

Chief Justice Chakradhari Sharan Singh said that just like Annual Confidential Reports (ACRs) of Judicial Officers, the Annual Report of the High Court works like an Annual Public Report (APR) which is an honest introspection into the failures faced by the judiciary in the preceding year.

In the two day conference, the District Judges and CJMs deliberated on a number of topics such as e-initiatives, budgets, planning, expenditure, inspection, yardstick, infrastructure etc. The Conference, which lasted for two days, was divided into seven technical sessions and each technical session was presided over by the Judges of the High Court.