Orissa High Court Felicitates Lawyers With Over 50 Yrs Of Practice, Confers ‘Lawyers Of The Year Award’ On 18 Young District Court Lawyers

As a part of the 75^th year celebration of the High Court of Orissa, the Lawyers’ Day was observed in a special way on Friday in a function organized at Odisha Judicial Academy, Cuttack. The Lawyers’ Day is observed every year on 28^th April by the legal fraternity of Odisha commemorating the birth anniversary of Utkala Gouraba Madhusudan Das.

29 senior lawyers of the High Court Bar Association who have completed 50 years in legal profession and the former and present Advocates General of Odisha were felicitated and 18 District Court lawyers who were adjudged as ‘Lawyers of the Year-2022’, were also felicitated in the function presided over by Justice Dipak Misra, former Chief Justice of India in the presence of Dr. Justice S. Muralidhar, Chief Justice and the Judges of the High Court of Orissa. Arvind P. Datar, Senior Advocate, Supreme Court of India attended the event as the Chief Speaker.

Delivering the keynote address former CJI Justice Dipak Misra said that the Bar is the fountainhead of knowledge and it builds the young lawyers. He urged the young lawyers to read the evolution of Greek civilization and to follow the seniors and inculcate their good attributes. He added, the Bar stands as a pillar in the democratic polity and because of the contribution of lawyers the liberty of people is protected.

Speaking on the occasion Chief Justice Muralidhar said that lawyers contribute to the development of law and role of a lawyer is critical in shaping the course of justice. He said conduct, court etiquette, general reputation and integrity are very important for a lawyer.

In adversarial system it is very easy to focus on winning a case at any cost keeping aside the ethics, to focus on achieving the end ignoring the means, but this tendency earns the bar a bad reputation, he warned. He said a judge easily makes out by the conduct of a lawyer whether he can be trusted and because of the trust of the court the lawyer gets patient hearing which is ultimately for his client’s benefit.

Justice V. Narasingh, Judge of the High Court proposed the vote of thanks. Notably, this is the first ever programme undertaken by the High Court to felicitate veteran lawyers.