40 More Paperless Courts Inaugurated

Cuttack: As many as 40Paperless Courts in Phase-Vwere inaugurated in virtual modeon Tuesday by Dr. Justice
Bidyut Ranjan Sarangi, ActingChief Justice, High Court ofOrissa in presence of JusticeKrushna Ram Mohapatra,
Chairperson, ArtificialIntelligence & InformationTechnology Committee of theHigh Court of Orissa, Dr. Justice
Sanjeeb Kumar Panigrahi,Member, Artificial Intelligence &Information TechnologyCommittee of the High Court of
Orissa and the Judges of the HighCourt of Orissa. District Judgesand judicial officers of the statejoined the event through virtual
mode. In the NationalConference on Digitization, e-Initiatives and Paperless Courtsheld at Cuttack on 5th and 6th
May, 2023, the Chief Justice ofthe High Court of Orissa hadmade a commitment to set up100 Paperless Courts in theState within a period of three months, in addition to the 34 PaperlessCourts existing by then. The commitment was fulfilled with inaugurationof 107 Paperless Courts by August, 2023, but the work continued and25 more Paperless Courts were set up in September, 2023. With the
inauguration of 40 Paperless Courts in Phase-V on 31st October, 2023the number of Paperless Courts in the District Judiciary of the State
has now reached 199. Speaking in the inaugural function Dr. BidyutRanjan Sarangi, Acting Chief Justice said 40 Paperless Courts in the
fifth phase is yet another milestone crossed by the Odisha judiciaryand this is a work in progress. He said, the efforts of Dr. Justice S.
Muralidhar as the Chief Justice of the High Court have led Odisha tobecome the leading State in the country in adaptation of technology injudiciary which has been time and again recognized by Chief Justice ofIndia. The Acting Chief Justice thanked the entire State Judiciary tocome forward in using technology for speedy and effective justicedelivery and announced that more and more Courts will be made
paperless every month till achieving the goal of making the entirejudiciary paperless. Justice Krushna Ram Mohapatra stressed upon the
need of using technology for benefit of the poor. He congratulated thejudicial officers who have come forward to make their courts paperless.Discussing about the disadvantages of handling physical records in dayto dayCourt proceedings, Justice Mohapatra said paperless functioninghas made Court proceedings much smoother. He said Odisha Judiciaryhas been using technology in the interest of the common citizens andthis has been widely acknowledged. Justice Mohapatra urged the judicialofficers and lawyers to adapt to technology in the interest of peopleseeking justice. Dr. Justice Sanjeeb Kumar Panigrahi said the task ofsetting up Paperless Courts in District Judiciary was first taken up bythe High Court of Orissa in September, 2021 with inauguration of 34Paperless Courts and since then the High Court has been marchingahead being example for the rest of the country. Sharing the statisticsregarding the appalling magnitude of deforestation for manufacture ofpaper, Justice Panigrahi informed that millions of trees are felledevery year for the papers used by the judiciary. He said, making Courtspaperless will have the effect of saving the environment which will bein the interest of mankind. As preparatory to the Paperless Courts,digitization of pending as well as disposed of records in the districts hasbeen taken up in the District Court Digitization Hubs and training hasbeen imparted to judicial officers other stakeholders across the state
by the mastertrainer judicial officers and the technical team headed bythe Central Project Coordinator. Odisha has become the first State tohave so many Paperless Courts in the district level. Paperless court haspositive impact on the reconfiguration of space and the whole
architecture and atmosphere of the Courts.

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