‘I Consider Myself Most Fortunate To Have Been Sent To Odisha As Its Chief Justice’: CJ Muralidhar Retires

Advocate General Ashok Kumar Parija expressed his gratitude to the Chief Justice for serving the institution and taking it to new heights. Dharanidhar Nayak, President of Orissa High Court Bar Association joined the function through virtual mode and made a farewell reference.

Justice Muralidhar, who took oath as the Chief Justice of the Court on 4^th January 2021, was seen a little emotional while leaving the office and started his address by saying,

“I consider myself most fortunate to have been sent to this wonderful State of Odisha as its Chief Justice. Those who do not know enough about Odisha and we have been persuading them to visit us are stunned, astounded by richness of Odisha, of the humaneness of the people of Odisha, of the culture, of the traditions, of the spirits of people of Odisha.”

He expressed gratitude to the people of Odisha for all the warmth, love and affection he and his family received during his stint at the helm of Odisha Judiciary.

“I have made this stint of mine in the Orissa High Court the most memorable one. We will be carrying with us very fond memories of Odisha and the love and affection we received from every quarter.”

He thanked all his residential as well as office staff, secretarial staff and Registrars for their tireless contributions to carry out his visions.

“Then come to the people whom I am accused of ‘slave-driving’, i.e. my Registry. Before thanking them, I want to thank each of their families. Many of their families haven’t seen them for nights. They have been offered to send all the bedrolls here to the High Court so that they can at least sleep here in the High Court, instead of coming back home. But the real asset of the High Court are its officers.”

The outgoing Chief Justice highlighted some of the milestones that the Court has reached during his stint in the office for the last 31 months. He underlined that the Record Room Digitization Centre (RRDC) has done wonderful work over the last two years and has been lauded by numerous legal veterans.

Further, he spoke about the Judicial History project, for which the Centre for Judicial Archives has been set up. Under the said project, the Centre is thriving hard to connect the dots of the history of the Odisha Judiciary.

Justice Muralidhar expressed his gratitude for the State Government of Odisha for incessant support in granting funds and for extending other cooperations for improving the Judicial infrastructure.

He said that various initiatives taken by the Orissa High Court has drawn widespread appreciation from jurists, including former Chief Justices of India. He expressed his satisfaction over the improved state of record management in the District Judiciary.

Explaining the progress made in technological adaptation by the Odisha Judiciary, he said that the master trainers have been conducting hands-on training program for not only Judges but also for lawyers and law clerks.

He also highlighted several schemes introduced during his tenure for betterment of lawyers, such as ‘Lawyer of the Year Award’ for District Court lawyers and Regional Judicial Academies for imparting training not only to Judicial Officers but also to the lawyers.

He talked about the publication of Annual Reports of the Orissa High Court where all the achievements of the State Judiciary are canvassed. He also expressed pleasure over resuscitation of the Annual District Judges’ Conference which was discontinued for eight years and was revived during his tenure.

He let the audience know the encouraging figures achieved by the State Judiciary in terms of disposal of cases. He said that only his Bench has disposed over 33,000 cases during his stint in the Orissa High Court.

Lastly, he said that while he departs from the institution of Judiciary, he does not mourn but is happy as it is a ‘moment of celebration’. He looked forward to the next phase of life and hinted that he might consider joining the Bar again.