Bhubaneswar: Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Wednesday said he had urged the Centre to fill up eight vacant posts of judges in the Orissa High Court at the earliest.
Briefing media persons at Naveen Nivas after returning from his five-day tour to New Delhi, Patnaik said he had informed the joint conference of the Chief Ministers and Chief Justices of High Courts held on April 24 that Odisha recognizes the importance of timely delivery of justice to the common citizens. “Besides, I also informed the conference that Odisha has made substantial progress on the decision taken during the last joint conference held on April 5, 2015,” he added.
The chief minister said the state government has set up 30 Judicial Magistrate First Class (JMFC) courts for trial of offences against women while 26 JMFC courts have been set up in remote districts. Besides, Grama Nyayalayas (village courts) have been set up in rural areas.
“Apart from this, the Orissa High Court has been strengthened with a litigant-friendly modern court complex while the Odisha Judicial Academy has been created for imparting quality training in building capacity of judicial officers. A state level mediation centre and 21 district level mediation centres have been operationalised for early disposal of cases and 17 district court buildings covering newly created districts are under construction. Construction of a major judicial complex to accommodate all courts of Bhubaneswar under a single roof at a cost of Rs 200 crore is under progress,” Patnaik said.
He also said the state government has agreed to bear the recurring expenses to implement the e-Court projects beyond the support by the Central government and to work towards digitization of the records of the Orissa High Court.
Referring to the other demands of the state government, he said he had urged upon the Centre to supplement the efforts of the state government by providing resources to create court infrastructure, residential buildings and other amenities as no Central assistance has been received on these heads since 2014.