SC Judge Justice Surya Kant Inaugurates 5 New Regional Judicial Academies

Cuttack: Supreme Court of India Judge Justice Surya Kant in the presence of Dr Justice S. Muralidhar, Chief Justice and Judges of High Court of Orissa inaugurated five newly established Regional Judicial Academies at Angul, Balasore, Sambalpur, Ganjam at Berhampur & Koraput at Jeypore in virtual mode from Odisha Judicial Academy.

Delivering the welcome address Dr Justice Bidyut Ranjan Sarangi, Judge, High Court of Orissa and Chairman of Judicial Academy & Training Committee discussed the factors leading to the establishment of the Regional Judicial Academies and thanked Chief Justice Dr S Muralidhar for conceiving the idea.

He informed that in the last five years alone, about 300 training programmes have been conducted in the Odisha Judicial Academy and expressed hope that Regional Academies will prove to be immensely beneficial for the judicial officers, court staff, lawyers and their clerks as well as the other stakeholders across the state.

Dr Justice S Muralidhar said that the coming into fruition of the five Regional Academies was the result of coordinated and concerted efforts of the Judges of the High Court and the District Judges and thanked the State Government for notifying these Regional Academies and extending support.

The Chief Justice said that the five locations were carefully chosen taking into consideration their geographical locations so as to form clusters for the benefit of the nearby districts.

He said many ICT initiatives have been rolled out by the High Court in last two years and many such initiatives are on card which can be implemented effectively only if the judicial officers, court staff, lawyers and their clerks are provided hands-on training on use of these technologies.

Delivering the inaugural address Justice Surya Kant, Judge, Supreme Court of India said that the Regional Judicial Academies of Odisha be an example for the rest of the country.

Justice Surya Kant highlighted the role of district judiciary in delivery of justice to the common people and expressed hope that the Regional Judicial Academies will effectively help in the functioning of the district judiciary. He lauded the establishment of virtual courts in the districts by the High Court of Orissa and called it a landmark step in ensuring access to justice.

Highlighting the importance of mediation as an effective tool in an alternative dispute redressal system, Justice Surya Kant advised for training the judicial officers in the Regional Judicial Academies on mediation exercises and legal aid activities.

He said the efforts of the judiciary is fortified by the trust of millions of people and congratulated the High Court and the State Government for the pioneering initiative of establishing the Regional Judicial Academies.

Justice Biraja Prasanna Satapathy, Judge, High Court of Orissa proposed the vote of thanks.

While some of the Judges physically attended the function in the Odisha Judicial Academy, the other Judges were present in the five Regional Judicial Academies and attended the function in virtual mode. Among others, the District Judges and Judicial Officers of the State also attended the function in virtual mode.

Regional Judicial Academies – An Overview

For training and capacity building of the Judicial Officers of the State, the Odisha Judicial Academy was established at Cuttack on 20th December 2003.

After functioning in the Old Building of the Board of Revenue for nearly a decade, in November, 2012 the Academy was shifted to the Old Chief Justice’s Bungalow at Killa Fort, the present Museum of Justice and then to its own building on 10th August, 2013.

Besides conducting induction training of the newly recruited judicial officers and refresher training of the officers on important legal topics, the Odisha Judicial Academy also conducts training programmes for court staff, prosecutors, lawyers and other stakeholders.

With the expansion of the State Judiciary, new challenges have emerged. While the strength of Judicial Officers has gone up to 1000, the staff strength of all the districts has crossed 5000.

In view of the expansion, it is becoming increasingly difficult in organizing training programmes for all the judicial officers and other stakeholders in the Academy at Cuttack.

Besides, it is also difficult for the officers and staff from the far-flung areas to travel to Cuttack for training programmes.

While periodical training programmes are essential for the capacity building of the officers and staff, requiring them to travel from long distances causes a huge loss of judicial time and money.

Each year the district Courts are recruiting new staff who require induction training. Likewise, in-service staff are also required to be trained on the various aspects of practice and procedure according to the changing needs of the Justice delivery system, for its effective and quick implementation.

In the post-pandemic era, the State Judiciary has embraced technology in a massive scale and made use of it in almost every aspect of the legal system such as e-Filing, e-Payment of court fees, virtual hearings, online certified copies, digitization of records etc.

For effective implementation of technology-enabled initiatives, regular practical hands-on training of all the stakeholders at the district level is inevitable which is no more feasible centrally at Cuttack.

Taking all these factors into consideration, in 2021 Chief Justice Dr. Justice S. Muralidhar conceived the idea of decentralizing the Odisha Judicial Academy and establishing Regional Academies for effective and regular training of the Judicial Officers and other stakeholders at the grass-root level without loss of time and money and it has been at the top of his priorities.

After threadbare deliberation, on 1st December 2021, the Judicial Academy and Training Committee of the High Court selected Angul, Balasore, Ganjam at Berhampur, Koraput at Jeypore and Sambalpur for the Regional Academies.

These five places were selected on the basis of their geographical locations and proposed to be clusters so as to facilitate the officers and staff of their nearby districts in attending training programmes.

Accordingly, the District Judges of the said five districts were requested for feasibility reports. After receipt of the feasibility reports the Committee on 14th March 2022 formally decided to establish Regional Academies at said five places and requested the respective District Judges to prepare infrastructure in their court buildings.

Accordingly, the State Government was requested for the provision of funds and the creation of posts for the establishment of five Regional Judicial Academies.

The State Government acceded to the proposal and on 26th April, 2023 notified establishment of the five Regional Judicial Academies at Angul, Balasore, Ganjam at Berhampur, Koraput at Jeypore and Sambalpur.

Infrastructure was made ready with smart class and furniture and staff are deployed. Secretaries of the respective District Legal Services Authorities were kept in charge of the Regional Judicial Academies as Deputy Directors.