Background- Setting up of Centre for Judicial Archives, Odisha
The idea of having a project for documenting the judicial history of Odisha took seed in the first half of 2021 when we began concerted efforts to streamline the preservation of old case records both in the High Court as well as four District Courts in Sambalpur, Balasore, Cuttack and Ganjam. That process led to the serendipitous discovery of documents dating back to the early 19th century, which were in a reasonably readable condition, though fragile. A sampling of these documents gave valuable insights into the functioning of the judiciary and of the problems brought before the courts during those times.
The case records of the High Court of Orissa include the old judicial records of three other High Courts: at Calcutta, Patna and Madras. They also include records belonging to the erstwhile High Courts of the princely states of Mayurbhanj, Sonepur and so on. The treasure trove of historical information contained in the records requires careful physical handling and treatment using the latest scientific techniques before the information is properly identified, collated, preserved and made accessible to researchers and scholars.
The Centre for Judicial Archives, Odisha was set up on 1st May 2022 by the Odisha Gazette Home Department Notification no. 14386 dated 1st May 2022 in the newly constructed Records Room Digitization Centre (RRDC) Building.
ORGANOGRAM
Objectives of Centre for Judicial Archives, High Court of Orissa:
- Preserving and archiving the old and fragile records of High Court and other district courts of Odisha up to 1950
- Acquisition of fragile records from High Court and other District Courts of Odisha, their proper arrangement, scientific preservation, cataloguing, publication and digitization of those records
- Allowing access of records to Research Scholars, officials and public by facilitating their consultation online and offline.
- Compilation of judicial history of Odisha by engaging a group of law researchers and historians under the supervision of Director cum OSD of the archives and similar such projects on continuation basis from time to time.
- Stimulating academic and research activities through symposia, seminar, research works in history, archives and law and publication of academic journals and matters pertaining to archives, judicial history and records on sharing basis with other academic and archival institutions of Odisha and across the country
- Administrative supervision, overseeing the upgradation and expansion of Museum of Justice, formerly known as High Court Museum functioning since 2017
- Overseeing and advising the functioning of Records Rooms of all 29 district courts of Odisha
Steps taken towards setting up of Centre for Judicial Archives
The entire work of preservation of archival records and upgrading the museum was entrusted to Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH) of Odisha Chapter. But before the process of agreement with INTACH was finalized, Dr Justice S. Muralidhar, the Chief Justice desired to lead a team consisting of His Lordship, Justice Sashikanta Mishra and Dr Lalatendu Das Mohapatra, Director cum OSD, Centre for Judicial Archives to visit some leading museums, archives and libraries in India to get an insight about their preservation, up keeping of records and digitization system for their possible adaptation here. Accordingly they visited Indian Museum, Victoria Memorial Museum and Police Museum, Kolkata, Bihar and Patna Museum and Khuda Baksh Oriental Public Library, Patna and Roja Mutthaiya Library and Government Museum in Chennai. That apart both Justice Sashikanta Mishra and Dr Lalatendu Das Mohapatra had also visited National Archives of India, Delhi Archives and National Museum in Delhi. The visit to these institutions provided them deep insight about preservation and digitization system of records and showcasing system of gallery for the museum.
Visits to different District Courts of Odisha:
Besides, Dr. Lalatendu Das Mohapatra also visited some of the old district and session courts such as Berhampur, Aska, Bhadrak, Balasore, Mayurbhanj, Keonjhar, Puri and Dhenkanal to locate antique articles and fragile records of those courts which could be transferred to the Centre for Judicial Archives. In that process about fifty antique items, besides a few of the oldest records in the record room of each court were located and shortlisted.
Some of Old Records received from different Districts of Odisha The document contains records relating to T.S. no. 21 of 1868 acquired from the District of Keonjhar. The document contains records relating to Mokadamma No. 149 of 1882 acquired from the District of Balasore. The document contains records relating to Appeal No. 02 of 1868 acquired from the District of Ganjam. The document contains records relating to T.S. No. 02 of 1887 acquired from the District of Kalahandi. Since acquisition, preservation, digitization and cataloguing of records are the four basic principles of archival system, the centre immediately after its inception has taken up these steps on a priority basis.
Acquisition of records:
The Centre in its original repository had 14,271 records, out of which 11,217 were civil and 3054 criminal cases (1813-1950). The earlier records pertaining to Sadr Diwani Adalat and Sadr Nizamat Adalat belong to Bengal, Madras and Central Provinces. Subsequently on 15 July 2022, 1999 files preserved in the Museum of Justice were transferred to its custody. Thereafter 3606 files from the judgeships of Sundergarh, Balangir, Puri, Keonjhar, Balasore, Koraput, Mayurbhanj and Kalahandi have been added to the collection. Besides, 31,432 files of District Records Room, Cuttack which is also functioning in RRDC building also constitutes an important part of archival collection of Centre for Judicial Archives. Cuttack district court provides the earliest specimen of court records in Odisha which is dated back to 1808. Recently the Centre was further enriched with the acquisition of 12, 499 records from District Court, Ganjam. The Centre at present has the total strength of 63,807 archival records.
Since Persian was the official language till 1839, all the records pertaining to Sadr Diwani Adalat and Sadr Nizamat Adalat, apart from the Munsiff Court of Cuttack till 1839 are exclusively in Persian language. In 1839, by the order of the government, English and vernaculars were also used in Court. Therefore after 1839, Persian along with English and other vernacular languages such as Odia, Bengali and Telugu are found to have been used in the court documents. Balasore appears to be the first district court which made good use of the order of the government by producing all arjees in Odia after 1839. Besides, Odia was also used frequently in the courts of the princely states such as Keonjhar, Dhenkanal and Patnagarh in the 19th century. By the end of the 19th century, both Odia and English have totally replaced Persian in almost all the courts in Odisha.
Cataloguing of records:
Before setting up of the archives, there appears to have no catalogue of records either in the High Court or in the district courts. Since cataloguing of records is necessary for retrieval of information, the Centre has so far made provisional cataloguing of 14,344 files which includes the records of Sadr Dewani Adalat, Second Appeal, First Appeal, Civil Revision and High Court Museum etc. In the provisional catalogue, case no with date, name of the parties, no of pages, languages used and overall condition of records are mentioned which may be as good as check list of records.