Cuttack: On Saturday, Justice DY Chandrachud, Judge, Supreme Court of India and the Chairperson of the Supreme Court’s e-Committee in the presence of Chief Justice of Orissa High Court, Justice S Muralidhar, inaugurated three significant initiatives in a function at the Odisha Judicial Academy.
These are: E-filing version 3.0, Vulnerable Witness Deposition Centres & Virtual Courtrooms and Odisha Judicial Workflow Automation System.
e-Filing 3.0 is the latest version of e-filing software developed by NIC under the aegis of the e-Committee, Supreme Court of India to make case filing in electronic mode far more convenient and effective for Advocates and litigants compared to the previous version. High Court of Orissa became the first High Court to implement this version of e-Filing in the country.
This advanced version of e-filing shall also be available in various District and Taluka level Courts of the State of Odisha. As on today, the District and Taluka Courts of only three States – Odisha, Kerala and Maharashtra have implemented this e-filing software whose adoption is being spearheaded by the Supreme Court’s e-Committee.
The initiative of opening Vulnerable Witness Deposition Centre with Virtual Courtrooms was undertaken by the High Court of Orissa at the behest of Justice Muralidhar few months back in the Districts of Bhadrak and Malkangiri with the objective of providing conducive ambience to vulnerable witnesses for deposing their evidence before Courts.
Virtual Courtrooms aim to introduce the concept of hybrid hearing in District Courts to enable conducting trials regardless of where the Judge, the Advocates, the witness or the accused are present. This would enable official witnesses to be able to depose before Courts at different locations through video conferencing without having to hamper their usual duties.
Now Vulnerable Witness Deposition Centres and Virtual Courtrooms shall be available in fifteen districts of the State – Angul, Bhadrak, Balangir, Cuttack, Jagatsinghpur, Kalahandi, Kendrapada, Bhubaneswar, Koraput, Nayagarh, Nuapada, Nabarangpur, Malnkangiri, Sambalpur and Sonepur.
Delivering the welcome address, Justice Biswajit Mohanty, the Chairman of the High Court’s I.T. and A.I. Committee, apprised the audience regarding the initiatives recently undertaken in the field of ICT and the ones to be inaugurated.
Justice R.C. Chavan, the Vice Chairperson of the e-Committee highlighted on the necessity of adoption of technology in changing times and the role of the Courts and stakeholders in making this possible.
Justice Gita Mittal, former Chief Justice of the Jammu and Kashmir High Court and the Chairperson of the Committee constituted by the Supreme Court of India for Vulnerable Witness Deposition Centres attended the event through video conferencing.
She spoke extensively on necessity of digital inclusion for true success of any ICT initiative. Justice Mittal congratulated the High Court team led by Justice Muralidhar on adoption of e-filing 3.0, opening of VWDCs and Virtual Courtrooms.
Speaking on the occasion, Justice Muralidhar acknowledged the support provided to the initiative of e-filing by Advocate General for State Government filings and the Asst Solicitor General for Central Government filings and shared the consistent efforts made by the High Court in training the Advocates across the State on the digital services so as to cope up with the ICT eco system.
He spoke on the positive experience of utilizing virtual courtrooms in four districts opened earlier this year in order to overcome barriers of distance and time for examining official witnesses which led to providing virtual courtrooms in the thirteen vulnerable witness deposition centres opened today. He also acknowledged the e-Committee’s guidance and support for the ICT related initiatives of the High Court.
Justice Muralidhar spoke on learning from automation adopted in the State Secretariat and adopting this practice in the High court’s offices for ensuring paperless mode of work and ensuring transparency and speed in office work. He added that OJWAS will eventually be extended to District Court.
Delivering the inaugural address, Justice Chandrachud hailed the inaugurated initiatives spearheaded by Justice Muralidhar with the support of the State Government and reminded that the reason why the State and the Judiciary must put in bipartisan effort in the administrative workspace is because they share the common mission of serving the common citizen.
Talking about e-filing 3.0 and vulnerable witness deposition centre, he said that both these initiatives put a human face to technology. Highlighting the emphasis on digital inclusion and need to provide witness centric measures, Justice Chandrachud also mentioned that having vulnerable witness deposition centres marks accomplishment of an important objective for the benefit of the witnesses without whose uninfluenced testimony there cannot be any rule of law.
The event was attended by the Judges of the High Court of Orissa, the Advocate General of the State and the office bearers of the High Court Bar Association, the Commissioner of the Cuttack Municipal Corporation and the DCP, Cuttack.
Justice Bibhu Prasad Routray, Judge, High Court of Orissa and the Member of High Court’s I.T., A.I. and VWDC Committee delivered the vote of thanks.
