Cuttack: The two-day National Conference on Judicial History and Archives organised by Orissa High Court at Odisha Judicial Academy was concluded here on Sunday. The conference was inaugurated by Judge of Supreme Court of India Justice Shripathi Ravindra Bhat on Friday.
Addressing the closing ceremony as chief guest, Archaeologist and Chairman of National Monument Authority (NMA) Kishor Kumar Basa highlighted the importance of judicial archives and lauded the effort of Chief Justice of Orissa High Court Dr. S Muralidhar in establishing the centre at Cuttack. He said just like judicial process is conversation between the judge and lawyers, history is the conversation between the historian and the facts. Historians are always concerned with the elements of change and elements of continuity, he added.
He said tracing the judicial history of India from the ancient period to the modern period is a challenge. He urged the historians and students of judicial history to explore the possibility of inscriptions serving as sources of information about the judicial system of ancient period.
Speaking on the occasion, Justice S Muralidhar informed the participants the background of judicial history project undertaken by the High Court. Highlighting the importance of record keeping, he said records are the soul of the functioning of a court but ironically, recordkeeping is the most neglected part in the courts across the country. He added that in absence of records the proceedings in the trial courts get stalled for years together and realizing this the High Court first took the step of digitizing the trial court records and sending them back to the trial courts which helped them revive very old matters. The Chief Justice discussed the advantages of digitization and archiving of judicial records.
Eminent historians and scholars from across the country and students of various educational institutions participated in the conference. Professor Partha Chatterjee, Professor Emeritus of Anthropology and of Middle Eastern, South Asian and African Studies was the distinguished guest in the conference. Among others, Dr Amar Farooqui, Dr Anirudh Deshpande, Dr Ashok Anshouman, Dr Jatin Nayak, Umakanta Mishra, Dr Sasmiti Rani Sasini, Dr Sanjay Garg, Dr Karuna Mahil, Dr Bhavani Raman, Dr Prakash R, Dr Aparna Balachandran and Bidisha Chakrobarty presented papers on different topics.
Eminent historians Dr Prabhu Prasad Mohapatra, Dr Suranjan Das, Dr Nivedita Mohanty and Dr Lalatendu Das Mohapatra also participated in the deliberations.
The conference has its genesis in the judicial history project undertaken by the High Court of Orissa in the Centre for Judicial Archives which was established on 1st May, 2022. In 2021 after establishment of Record Room Digitization Centre (RRDC) when preservation of old case records was taken up, documents dating back to the early 19th century containing information on the functioning of the erstwhile judicial system were discovered.
Justice Sashikanta Mishra offered the vote of thanks.
