Justice KM Joseph Inaugurates E-Libraries For 24 Outlying Bar Associations In 16 Districts Of Odisha

In March last year, the High Court had inaugurated 30 e-Libraries for the Bars of all the District Headquarter stations and 2 for the outlying stations at Koraput and Rourkela. After getting encouraging feedback from the existing e-Libraries, the High Court had decided to open more such facilities in 24 Bars working at the outlying stations of several districts, where at least 100 advocates are practising.

The e-Libraries were inaugurated in the following stations.

Separate cabins with workstation having computer system and internet connectivity have been set up inside the aforementioned Bar halls. The purpose for providing the e-libraries is to facilitate the advocates to do legal research and represent their clients in the best possible manner before the Courts. The press statement of the High Court said,

“e-Libraries enable the lawyers to have access to various decisions and books readily available to them digitally. It helps in easy information retrieval. The user can easily search the desired information by using any search term. The e-Library for the lawyers is more beneficial to the young lawyers as they are relatively new to the profession and might not be having sufficient resources to subscribe to many journals and books”. 

Delivering the keynote address, Justice Joseph said a lawyer cannot afford to be ignorant of law and rather should be a perpetual student of law. He said the people of the country have the right to expect that their lives and properties are safe in the hands of lawyers. Stressing upon the importance of language in legal profession, he urged the young lawyers to be familiar with the judgments of the Constitutional Courts and to be conversant with not only law but also literature.

While speaking on the occasion, Chief Justice Muralidhar said lack of means to have books would not be a constraint for legal research for young lawyers even in remote places. He said, Bar is the nursery to young Judges and by strengthening the Bar ultimately the judiciary will be strengthened.

The Chief Justice also announced that online services of AIR, Manupatra and the CD-ROM version of Orissa Law Times (OLT) are being provided to the e-Libraries apart from the e-Supreme Court Report (e-SCR) where more than 34,000 judgments of the Supreme Court are available.