Orissa High Court Invites Senior Citizens From Old Age Home To Visit Its Premises & Museum Of Justice

In a bid to increase access to justice and to make courts people friendly, senior citizens from an Old Age Home run by the Association for Social Reconstructive Activities (ASRA), Cuttack were last week invited to visit the Orissa High Court, the Museum of Justice and the Odisha State Legal Services Authority (OSLSA).

The officials of the High Court guided them inside the institutions and narrated various aspects of judicial functioning. The senior citizens were elated to be in the Chief Justice’s Courts and Chambers and to learn about the Chief Justices and Judges of the yesteryears.

The visitors, who were mostly octogenarians, visited the newly inaugurated Museum of Justice where Abhilash Senapati, Registrar (Records) and the Museum officials explained about the importance of artefacts displayed there as well as the evolution of justice delivery system.

They also paid visit to the Aain Seva Bhavan which houses the office of the OSLSA. They were briefed about the Alternative Disputes Redressal (ADR) mechanism and its role in redressal of legal grievances of the poor litigants.

The guests also interacted with Justice Gourishankar Satapathy, who told them about their rights under various legislations and the right to avail free legal aid as senior citizens.

While responding to the legal problems shared by the senior citizens, Justice Satapathy assured them that the OSLSA would take prompt and effective steps for redressal of their legal issues and asked the Member Secretary, OSLSA to depute panel lawyers and paralegal volunteers to visit their Old Age Home to collect material information.

Pertinent to note, the High Court, under the leadership of Chief Justice Dr. S. Muralidhar, has already opened its gates for school children, law students and hearing and speech impaired children, who have been visiting its premises since last year. With this invitation to the senior citizens to visit and learn about the Court, a serious step has been taken to make Courts citizen-centric.