Cuttack, Oct 20: Following encouraging results of the 20 virtual courts already set up, the High Court of Orissa has now set up virtual courts in the remaining 10 districts namely, Bargarh, Boudh, Deogarh, Gajapati, Jharsuguda, Nabarangpur, Nuapada, Rayagada, Malkangiri and Sonepur.
The 10 virtual courts were inaugurated in virtual mode by Dr. Justice Bidyut Ranjan Sarangi, Acting Chief Justice in the presence of Justice Krushna Ram Mohapatra, Chairman of the I.T. & A.I. Committee, Dr. Justice Sanjeeb Kumar Panigrahi, Member of the IT & AI Committee and the Judges of the High Court of Orissa.
Among others, Advocate General of Odisha, judicial officers, government officials and advocates of the 10 districts attended the function. Experience of the 20 virtual courts established in first and second phase video conferencing facility for court hearings is a significant technological measure as it facilitates lawyers and litigants in remote places to appear before the courts in virtual mode.
A proposal for enabling the District Court lawyers to file their cases online and participate in hearing of cases before the High Court in virtual mode was placed by the High Court of Orissa before the Supreme Court of India on the judicial side. The proposal was approved by the Supreme Court in December last year.
In February, the High Court of Orissa established dedicated virtual courts in 10 of the 30 districts in the fisrt phase namely, Sambalpur, Ganjam at Berhampur, Bhadrak, Kalahandi at Bhawanipatna, Khurda at Bhubaneswar, Bolangir, Koraput at Jeypore, Puri and Sundargarh at Rourkela.
Till the month of September a total 1,514 of cases have been e-filed and disposed of, 2,550 virtual hearings have been done and 670 applications for online certified copies has been received and 1,161 online mention memos have been filed.
