CUTTACK: Women officers may soon constitute well over 70 per cent of the judicial workforce in Odisha, said Chief Justice of Orissa High Court S Muralidhar here on Saturday.
Inaugurating 13 senior civil judge courts in the state virtually, the chief justice said the participation of women in the judiciary in Odisha has been increasing progressively and it is a good sign for the state and the country. “Very soon women judicial officers may constitute over 70 per cent of the workforce which is a good sign for the Odisha judiciary and a very good sign for the country as well,” he said.
The chief justice, though, noted that the participation of women in the Bar among lawyers has not kept pace with the increase in the participation of women in the judicial workforce. “But that too eventually should happen and will happen and all these women judicial officers will be an inspiration for others to come to the Bar to litigate and also join the judicial workforce,” he said.
Of the 13 courts inaugurated on the day, six are ‘women courts’ which have come up at Jharsuguda, Boudh, Malkangiri, Nabarangpur, Sundargarh and Angul. The other courts were opened at Balasore, Bargarh, Purushottampur (Ganjam), Kantamal (Boudh), Jaipatna (Kalahandi), G Udayagiri (Kandhamal) and Puri.
The chief justice said the new courts are fully equipped to take on all the challenges they are likely to face in their functioning as much of the working of the courts has been made easy because of technology. “The fact that technology is helping us a great deal is not only evidence of the participation in 12 districts across Odisha of so many people judicial officers, lawyers, local administration, judges in the high court - in the inauguration ceremony simultaneously”, he added.
While Justice Subashis Talapatra and Justice BR Sarangi spoke from the high court, Justice Debabrata Dash and Justice Biswanath Rath spoke from Purushottampur and Jaipatna respectively. A video presentation on the 13 new courts was also part of the inauguration in virtual mode.