20 Additional Paperless Courts Inaugurated In Odisha, Total 219

Cuttack: The Acting Chief Justice of the Orissa High Court Dr Justice Bidyut Ranjan Sarangi inaugurated 20 more paperless courts in Phase-VI of the e-Courts project, revolutionising the entire e-initiative process in Odisha.

Justices Krushna Ram Mohapatra and Sanjeeb Kumar Panigrahi, Chairperson and member of Artificial Intelligence & Information Technology Committee, respectively, and judges of the High Court were present on the occasion, while district judges and judicial officers of the state joined the event through virtual mode on November 30.

With this, the number of paperless courts in the district judiciary has gone up to 219. Forty paperless courts were inaugurated in the fifth phase on November 2.

Speaking in the inaugural function the Acting Chief Justice said 20 paperless courts in the sixth phase is yet another milestone crossed by the Odisha judiciary and this is a work in progress. “The efforts of Justice S Muralidhar as the Chief Justice of the High Court have led Odisha to become a leading state in the country in adaptation of technology in judiciary and it has been time and again recognised by Chief Justice of India. More and more courts will be made paperless every month till achieving the goal of making the entire judiciary paperless,” he said.

Justice Mohapatra said paperless functioning has made court proceedings much smoother. He also urged the judicial officers and lawyers to adapt to technology in the interest of people seeking justice.

In the National Conference on Digitization, e-Initiatives and Paperless Courts held at Cuttack on May 5-6, Justice S. Muralidhar, the then Chief Justice of the High Court, had made a commitment to set up 100 paperless courts in the state within a period of three months, in addition to the 34 paperless courts existing by then.

The first paperless court was inaugurated in the court of the Chief Justice on September 11, 2021. Odisha is perhaps the first state where there are paperless courts in all the districts.