Bhubaneswar: The High Court of Orissa celebrated its 75th Foundation Day on Tuesday. On the occasion, 22 young trial court lawyers of Odisha were presented the “Lawyer of the Year, 2021 Awards in accordance with a scheme formulated by the High Court.
The High Court was established on 26th July, 1948 and has entered the 75th year of its inception. To mark the occasion a function was organized in the evening of 26th July in the Odisha Judicial Academy where one lawyer each from 22 districts was felicitated in the presence of Dr. S. Muralidhar, Chief Justice, High Court of Orissa; Justice Biswajit Mohanty, Chairman, Committee for Lawyer of the year 2021; Justice K. R. Mohapatra and Justice Sashikanta Mishra, Members of the Committee; Ashok Kumar Parija, Advocate General of Odisha and Nirmal Kishore Rath, President, All Odisha Lawyers Federation.
Gopal Subramanium, Senior Advocate, Supreme Court of India and former Solicitor General of India and former Chairman Bar Council of India was the distinguished guest on the occasion. The function was also attended by Judges of the High Court of Orissa, Office Bearers of the High Court Bar Association, Cuttack and Bhubaneswar Bar Associations, lawyers and Judicial Officers.
The lawyers who were felicitated were selected on the basis of their work for the entire calendar year of 2021 evaluated by the jury consisting of the District Judge, the Chief Judicial Magistrate and three Senior Members of the Bars from the respective districts having experience of 20 years or more. The criteria for selection were the number of cases handled by the lawyer independently during a year and the number of judgments/final orders in contested cases, during the year, handled independently by the lawyer.
It was also stipulated that the lawyer should have conducted at least one trial in civilor criminal case entirely by himself or herself, during the year by appearing for any of the parties. This is perhaps the first ever Award of its kind in India for district court lawyers.
Justice Biswajit Mohanty delivered the welcome address and discussed about the nobility of legal profession as a responsibility to protect the society from tyranny and oppression. He informed that the objective of initiating such a scheme of choosing promising lawyers was to encourage the young lawyers.
Speaking on the occasion Nirmal Kishore Rath told that felicitation of young lawyers by the High Court is first of its kind which never happened earlier. He hailed the steps taken by Dr. Muralidhar, Chief Justice towards betterment of lawyers across the state in terms of infrastructure, e-Library facility, training in e-Filing etc. Ashok Kumar Parija spoke about the historical developments associated with the establishment of the High Court of Orissa and the contributions made by the High Court in the field of law by landmark judgments.
Delivering the keynote address Gopal Subramanium emphasized on the role of trial courts in actualization of access to rule of law and role of lawyers by their daily work in trial courts in achieving the ideals of truth, justice and fairness. He spoke about the importance of fair trial, oral advocacy and open court system in maintaining the public confidence in judicial administration. Subramanium also emphasized on the importance of a lawyers conduct, etiquette, fairness and integrity and the role of prosecutor in a fair trial.
Dr. Justice S.Muralidhar said the event is a beginning for the celebration of the 75th year of the High Court of Orissa. The Award has been instituted to encourage lawyers to adhere to ethical principles by resisting the temptations of shortcuts to progress in the profession. The idea was to identify lawyers committed to staying the entire course of the case till its disposal by participating fully at every stage of the trial. The Chief Justice expressed happiness over the fact that in some of the districts young women lawyers were selected as the promising lawyers and hoped that such events would reaffirm the faith of the common man in the rule of law and the judicial process.
The “Scheme for Promising Lawyer of the year Award” has been formulated after obtaining views and comments of the Bar Associations of the Districts. Such awards are proposed to be presented every year adopting the same procedure.
Earlier in the day floral tributes were offered in the statue of Justice Bira Kishore Ray, the first Chief Justice of the High Court of Orissa whose death anniversary coincides with the Foundation Day of the High Court. It is believed that the initiative of presenting awards to lawyers will go a long way in encouraging theyoung lawyers to believe in the ethical principles in legal practice.
