Fifty Paperless Courts Covering 23 Districts Inaugurated

Bhubaneswar: Orissa high Court Chief Justice Dr. Justice S. Muralidhar on Monday inaugurated 50 Paperless Courts covering 23 districts of Odisha in virtual mode. 34 Paperless Courts covering all the 30 Districts had been inaugurated by the Chief Justice of India on September 17, 2022. With the inauguration of 50 new Paperless Courts, the High Court of Orissa has come good on its pledge and the number of Paperless Courts in the District Judiciary of the State has reached 84. In near future the 50 more Paperless Courts are planned to be inaugurated. Speaking on the occasion Dr. S. Muralidhar said inauguration of 50 paperless courts in the second phase is yet another milestone crossed by the Odisha judiciary and this is a work in progress and the next 50 paperless courts will be made functional in a month’s time. He said as preparatory to the paperless courts training has been imparted to judicial officers across the state by the mastertrainer judicial officers and the technical team headed by the Central Project Coordinator. The Chief Justice complimented the judiciary for taking the lead in adapting technology for functioning of Courts. He said COVID pandemic caused an acceleration of use of technology in the judiciary and technology would change the way Judicial Officers approach their work.

The Chief Justice said working in Paperless Court makes it much easier for the Judge to access the relevant documents in digital case records which is far more difficult in voluminous physical records and it leaves a positive impact on the mindset of the Judge. Justice S. Talapatra, Chairman, Artificial Intelligence and Information Technology Committee of the High Court of Orissa who attended the function said the judiciary believes in the exercise of ethical expansion of technology in judiciary and stressed upon the need of using technology for benefit of the poor. He congratulated the judicial officers who have come forward to make their courts paperless. The Odisha Judiciary has been harnessing technology to make justice accessible to the common citizens and this has received accolades from various quarters,Justice Talpatra said. With inauguration of these 50 Paperless Courts Ganjam has become the first district in Odisha to have all the Courts paperless. The Courts in Odisha have adopted e- filing 3.0. The litigants and advocates can file the cases through e-filing 3.0 and the said cases shall be directly consumed by the Courts thereby obviating the need of physical filing. The e-filing module has integrated the payment of e-court fees which is not only economical but also environment friendly.

About Post Author