Cuttack: District Judges’ Conference, 2023 was inaugurated in the Auditorium of Odisha Judicial Academy at Cuttack on Saturday by Justice Sanjiv Khanna, Judge, Supreme Court of India in presence of Dr S Muralidhar, Chief Justice of the High Court of Orissa along with sitting and former Judges of the High Court.
Annual Report, 2022 of the High Court of Orissa was released on the occasion. Such a report has been published consecutively for the second year after the Annual Report, 2021 released after a gap of seven years in the District Judges’ Conference, 2022 which itself was held after a gap of nine years.
District Judges and Chief Judicial Magistrates of all the 30 districts of Odisha, senior officials of the State Government, officers of Odisha State Legal Services Authority (OSLSA) and Odisha Judicial Academy (OJA) attended the inauguration. Advocate General of Odisha, Deputy Solicitor General of India for High Court of Orissa and the President and office bearers of the High Court Bar Association were also present on the occasion.
The two days conference is being held for discussion on issues of judicial administration of the State and will be closed on Sunday (February 12).
The Annual Report is a comprehensive statement of the functioning and the activities of the High Court and the District Courts in 2022.
The report contains information on case statistics, infrastructural development, initiatives in Information and Communication Technology (ICT), budget and accounts, public outreach programmes and significant judgments delivered by the High Court.
Besides, the activity of High Court’s allied organs- OSLSA and OJA and that of the offices of Advocate General, Deputy Solicitor General of India and High Court Bar Association feature in the report. It also shares information on district judiciary, separately for each district.
Moreover, the report provides the account of the initiatives taken by judiciary to tackle the challenges enumerated in the last year’s report.
The year 2022 was an eventful year for the judiciary in Odisha. It was a year of revival and resurgence after two years of the Covid-19 pandemic.
In 2022 the judiciary in Odisha witnessed improved performance in disposal of cases as well as taking new initiatives. The first time initiatives launched by the High Court in 2022 include rationalization of case loads among trial courts, setting up Vulnerable Witness Deposition Centres (VWDCs), at least one Paperless Court and opening of e-Libraries for the lawyers in every district, establishment of 10 District Court Digitization Hubs (DCDHs), provisions of SCC Online to the Judicial Officers of the state, launching of Judicial History Project and the Centre for Judicial Archives, setting up of Judicial Infrastructure Management Agency (JIMA) etc.
The High Court introduced “Lawyer of the Year” Award for the District Court lawyers, perhaps the first of its kind in the country, to identify talented lawyers in the age bracket of 30 to 40 years and to encourage them to conduct full-fledged trials.
Lawyers from 22 districts were presented with the awards in 2022. Further, to incentivize better performance by the District Judiciary, the High Court also introduced a scheme for recognizing the best performing District Court classifying the districts into three categories i.e. Judgeships with more than 30 officers (Zone-A), Judgeships between 20 to 30 officers (Zone-B) and Judgeships with less than 20 officers (Zone-C). The Annual Report, 2022 contains minute details of these initiatives.
Presenting the welcome address Justice Subhasis Talapatra, Chairman of the District Judges’ Conference Committee said the District Judiciary is the bedrock of judicial institution.
He said frivolous litigations contribute in the arrears of cases to a large extent and the judiciary is to be vigilant to check such litigations at the entry level.
Justice Talapatra said the purpose of the Conference is to churn out the experience of the Judicial Officers and to infuse it into policy decision making for the coming years.
He emphasized on the need of use of technology in the justice administration system and advised the District Judges and Judicial Officers to adopt the basic standards of justice delivery namely access to justice, expedition to adjudicate, timeliness, equality, fairness, independent decision making, accountability etc.
Justice Talapatra stressed upon the need of training both in legal spheres and ethical norms.
Dr Justice S Muralidhar, Chief Justice, High Court of Orissa said the District Judges’ Conference, 2022 which was held after a gap on 9 years was a learning experience which helped achieve much better result.
The Chief Justice said it was due to the suggestions of the District Judges in the last year’s Conference that prompted the High Court to take steps for rationalization of case loads among the trial courts across the state resulting in disposal of 5,50,392 cases by the District Judiciary in 2022 – an increase of 116.02% on the disposal of 2,38,588 cases in 2021.
He also informed that the District Judiciary has delivered 1,61,263 judgments in 2022 compared to 72,806 in 2021. While congratulating the Judges of the High Court and the District Judiciary for improved performance in all spheres the Chief Justice reminded them not to be complacent.
The Chief Justice said that through the District Judges’ Conference the best practices can be identified by sharing of ideas and experiences and those best practices can be emulated.
Speaking about the Annual Report he said it was an attempt to make the report card of the judiciary available to the public to ensure accountability and transparency.
He described Justice Sanjiv Khanna as the epitome of discipline, dedication and an advocate of accountability and transparency. He described Justice Sanjiv Khanna as the epitome of discipline, dedication and an advocate of accountability and transparency.
The Chief Justice announced that Bolangir, Nayagarh and Deogarh were found to be the Best Performing Districts in Zone ‘A’, ‘B’ and ‘C’ respectively for 2022.
The District Judges and Chief Judicial Magistrates of the 3 districts received the awards from Justice Sanjiv Khanna and Dr Justice S Muralidhar in the inaugural function.
Delivering the inaugural address Justice Sanjiv Khanna described Odisha as a gem in the crown of India’s culture. Discussing various aspects of justice administration with special reference to the criminal justice administration Justice Khanna referred to the constitutional provisions namely Articles 14, 21, 22(1), 38 and 39(A) as the mainstay of criminal justice in India.
He said justice means existence of rules that provide a right to a fair and just decision, rules to provide equal and fair opportunity of winning against the most powerful and even the state.
Justice Khanna emphasized on proactive approach of the Judges and said neutrality should not result in indifference towards the weaker pitted against the stronger.
He advised the District Judges and Judicial Magistrates to guard against influence of internal biases and prejudices in adjudication.
With reference to impact of social media he discussed about “Truth Decay” – false information affecting the public perception on truth, and advised the participants of the Conference to beware of misinformation in court rooms. Quoting Justice Sundaresh Menon, the Chief Justice of Singapore he said truth decay leads to destruction of trust in judicial system.
Justice Khanna discussed on rights of accused persons at pre-arrest stage with reference to Section 41(A) of IPC and the guidelines of the Supreme Court in the case D K Basu.
He also discussed on various other aspects of criminal justice system namely, witness protection, victim compensation, problem of hostile witnesses in criminal trial, importance of case diaries in criminal trials, early adjudication of bail applications etc.
Justice Khanna stressed upon the need to preserve the procedural rights which are meant to ensure fair trial, protect individual liberty, promote accountability and strengthen the rule of law.
He advised the Judicial Officers to avoid Raaga (leaning in favour of anyone), Lobha (greed), Bhaye (fear) and Dvesha (ill-will).
Presenting the vote of thanks Justice Sashikanta Mishra, Member, Annual Report Committee expressed gratitude to Justice Sanjiv Khanna for the educative address made by him.
He also thanked Dr Justice S Muralidhar for planning the format of the District Judges’ Conference and thinking of publishing the Annual Report for information of the public.
In the two days Conference issues relating to ICT Initiatives in judiciary, judicial ethics, rules and practice directions, resource management, stress management, bar management, repercussions of social media on Judicial Officers, budget, planning and expenditure, infrastructure etc. will be discussed and deliberated by the Judges of the High Court, District Judges and Chief Judicial Magistrates for future policy making.
