'E-Filing Stations In Every District Will Help To Overcome The Digital Divide; Orissa HC Chief Justice S.Muralidhar

"We have been having training for lawyers. We started with the High Court Bar Association and then I have been travelling to the districts. This came out of the suggestion from the bar themselves. They kept reminding us of the possible digital divide and how all lawyers may not have access to facilities, and therefore may not be able to participate in all initiatives that we are taking, particularly the initiatives of the E-committee of the Supreme Court. That led to the next step of making sure that the lawyers actually get to do the e-filing. That is what has led to the setting up of the e-filing station in the High Court. My idea is to replicate these e-filing stations at least one in every district bar association. I hope to achieve this vision in a few months' time. It helps the lawyer to know that he can come to a place in the court where he can be guided as to how to do e-filing", elaborated the judge.

"Their own trainers will train other lawyers in the bar. We are tapping into the young energy of the bar. The younger lawyers are expected to come forward and share their knowledge with the other members of the bar. This way it will be a faster spread of awareness of all initiatives that we are launching. We are looking at a greater participation of every lawyer at all levels in the Orissa legal system"

"It was a huge learning experience. Every judge in the Delhi High Court is able to have the paperless court. COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated that change. In fact, the pandemic has made it necessary for the entire legal system to get on board much quicker than we expected. So the transition which was happening gradually has now suddenly become quick and all we are doing here is catching up, building upon the past experience, past knowledge and past initiatives and we are adding value to it with our own learning and capabilities", he said.

"This again is building upon past learning. We have already initiated record digitisation in the 4 major districts and Orissa. It has become a necessity. With more and more space that we need at all levels for the storage of all legal records, we thought we cannot delay this initiative for even a short while. We have this wonderful building, with the assistance of the state government, where we have been able to have a modern record room. We have combined this with shortening the retention time for some original records in various kinds of matters. We have also made sure that it is a seamless process – preservation of records, sending it for scanning, verification, returning back to the record room; it is like an assembly line. We are trying to modernise it", told the CJ.