40 More Paperless Courts Inaugurated In Odisha In Phase V Of E-Courts Project; Total Tally Reaches To 199 Courts

In the National Conference on Digitization, e-Initiatives and Paperless Courts held at Cuttack on 5th and 6th May, 2023, the then Chief Justice Dr. S. Muralidhar had made a commitment to set up 100 Paperless Courts in the State within a period of three months, in addition to the 34 Paperless Courts which were existing by then.

The commitment was fulfilled with inauguration of 107 Paperless Courts by August, 2023, but the work continued and 25 more Paperless Courts were set up in September, 2023. With the inauguration of 40 Paperless Courts in Phase-V on 31st October, 2023 the number of Paperless Courts in the District Judiciary of the State has now reached 199.

Speaking in the inaugural function, the Acting Chief Justice said 40 Paperless Courts in the fifth phase is yet another milestone crossed by the Odisha judiciary and this is a work in progress. He acknowledged the efforts of former Chief Justice Dr. Justice S. Muralidhar who led Odisha Judiciary from the forefront to become the leading State in the country in adaptation of technology in judiciary which has been time and again recognized by CJI DY Chandrachud.

The Acting Chief Justice thanked the entire State Judiciary to come forward in using technology for speedy and effective justice delivery and announced that more and more Courts will be made paperless every month till achieving the goal of making the entire judiciary paperless.

Justice Krushna Ram Mohapatra stressed upon the need of using technology for benefit of the poor. He congratulated the judicial officers who have come forward to make their Courts paperless. Discussing about the disadvantages of handling physical records in day to day Court proceedings, Justice Mohapatra said paperless functioning has made Court proceedings much smoother.

He further said, Odisha Judiciary has been using technology in the interest of the common citizens and this has been widely acknowledged. Justice Mohapatra urged the judicial officers and lawyers to adapt to technology in the interest of people seeking justice.

Dr. Justice Sanjeeb Kumar Panigrahi, Member of the Artificial Intelligence & Information Technology Committee said the task of setting up Paperless Courts in District Judiciary was first taken up by the High Court in September, 2021 with inauguration of 34 Paperless Courts and since then the High Court has been marching ahead setting examples for the rest of the country.

Sharing the statistics regarding the appalling magnitude of deforestation for production of paper, Justice Panigrahi informed that millions of trees are eliminated every year for the papers used by the judiciary. He stressed that making Courts paperless will have the effect of saving the environment which will be in the interest of mankind.

As preparatory to the Paperless Courts, digitization of pending as well as disposed of records in the districts has been taken up in the District Court Digitization Hubs and training has been imparted to judicial officers and other stakeholders across the state by the master-trainer judicial officers and the technical team headed by the Central Project Coordinator.

Notably, Odisha has become the first State in the country to have so many Paperless Courts at the district level. Further, the Odisha Judiciary has been leading in various e-projects and technological initiatives in the justice delivery system.