TV
With rapid technological development, 30 benches of the High Court can now be operated at the same time in all the districts of Odisha, said former Chief Justice of India, Dhananjaya Yeshwant Chandrachud on Wednesday while speaking on the series of protests to set up Orissa High Court benches witnessed by the state in the past several years.
While attending Odisha Television Limited’s (OTV) annual convention ‘Foresight 2025--Changing Times Changing Minds’ in Bhubaneswar, the former CJI said that in Odisha there are 30 districts and with technology, why should there be only one bench? “Today, we have the technology and the ability of 30 benches of the High Court operating at the same time. We can decentralise the administration of justice by ensuring that cases can be filed in High Court by not coming physically to Cuttack but it can be done from any part of the state,” he said.
According to the former CJI, now there are digitised case files and e-seva kendras so that if a citizen doesn’t have access to smartphones or laptops, he/she can visit to e-seva kendras attached to any court and file case electronically.
“If we prepare this model where in every district court, there should be one assigned room where a lawyer can argue a case before the High Court through video-conferencing, we can have a virtual High Court bench in every district. This will also ensure that young lawyers in far flung areas of the state also have the ability to develop and to argue cases before the High Court. This will not only be a matter of convince for litigants and increasing livelihoods of the lawyers, it will also bring social transformation in the position of legal profession. A huge change can be brought by the adoption of appropriate technology in promoting access to justice,” the former CJI said.
On promoting gender equality in judiciary as far women judges are concerned in Orissa High Court and in Supreme Court, the former CJI admitted that the ratio is low; however, the change that is taking place today is in the legal education. Be it medical, engineering or law, you will find that the 50 percent of fresh admissions in law colleges are women today.
Chandrachud on Live Streaming of Court Cases
The Live Streaming of court cases in the country started during the Covid pandemic. After the pandemic, the entire infrastructure was subsequently used in a better way and ‘we were able to take the work of Supreme Court to the homes and hearts of people’, said the former CJI during OTV Foresight 2025 in Bhubaneswar.
“Why do we exist as courts? We don’t exist for judges and lawyers, we exist for civil society and citizens. Think about some small case going on in Odisha district or any other part of the country. Litigant gets faith on the judiciary when he hears the proceedings through live streaming, be it the pension or case relating to service. Live streaming has promoted sense of accountability and confidence. It has also instilled accountability on part of judges as well regarding their conduct; as well as the lawyers,” he said.
He continued, “Apart from this, around 37,000 judgements of Supreme Court since Independence were in English. How does a common citizen understand it if all decisions of Supreme Court are in English? We do not write these decisions only for ourselves, rather we apply it before decisions. So, when I became the CJI, I decided to translate all the 37000 judgements in all Indian language recognized by the Constitution. We started this with the help of Artificial Intelligence (AI) aided software. All the translations in Hindi are completed, over 22,000 in Punjabi and work is in on for Odia and other languages.”
Recalling a moment during his tenure as CJI, he said President of India Droupadi Murmu lauded the ongoing translation work and urged to translate it in Santhali language as well. “We have also started the translation work in Santhali language,” he added.
