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| Odisha (formerly Orissa) High Court instagram.com |
Above image: The High Court of Orissa (Odisha) was established at Cuttack only in 1948 after prety long delay and deliberation that began during British Raj. In 2012 anew building came up to accommodate more judges and office room As for the old building with two floors, featuring Chantries at top, the design feature Indo-Saracenic style popularized by the British architect Robert Chisholm who designed many structures in Madras (Chennai) and also Baroda (Varadero),Gujarat........
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| The High Court of Orissa (now Odisha) istampgallery.com |
oThe State of Orissa (now Odisha) was originally a part of the Bengal province during the colonial rule. On 22nd March 1912, a new province of Bihar and Orissa was formed. However, it was the Calcutta High Court which exercised jurisdiction over the said new province. This changed with the Patna High Court came into existence with effect from 26th February 1916. Eleven Judgeships (Districts) in Bihar and one in Orissa were subject to the jurisdiction of the Patna High Court.
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| The High Court of Orissa (now Odisha) upload.wikimedia.org |
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| .Orissa High Court building mycitylinks.in |
It was ordained in the Letters Patent that one or more judges of the Patna High Court would visit Orissa by way of circuit to deal with the cases in Orissa. As a result, the Patna High Court began sitting in circuit at Cuttack from 18th May 1916. An Advocate General for Orissa was appointed. The District and Session Judge of Cuttack functioned as the Registrar of the Patna High Court in circuit. Welcoming the Judges at the first sitting of the Circuit Court at Cuttack, the President of the Cuttack Bar Association, Utkal Gourav Madhusudan Das, the first Advocate of Orissa State expressed the hope that a permanent Bench would soon be established at Cuttack.
Four of the districts of Orissa at that time, namely Cuttack, Balasore, Puri and Angul were under the jurisdiction of a single district judge. Sambalpur was under the jurisdiction of the Sambalpur–Manbhum District Judge. This situation continued till 1st April, 1936 when the separate province of Orissa was formed. From then on, there were two District judges one at Berhampur exercising Jurisdiction over Ganjam, Koraput and Puri and the other at Cuttack exercising Jurisdiction over Cuttack, Balasore and Sambalpur Districts.
Meanwhile, there was a growing demand for Orissa to have its own High Court with several representations being submitted to the Government for serious action. The High Court Bar Association at Cuttack adopted a Resolution on 26th July, 1938 demanding a separate High Court for Orissa.
By resolution dated 15th August 1942, the Government of Orissa constituted a committee to examine the question of establishing a High Court for Orissa. This Committee comprised of Sri Bira Kishore Ray, the then Advocate General, Odisha as Chairman and other senior government officials. Subsequently, the Governor of Orissa submitted an address to the Governor General of India on 3rd March, 1948 that a High Court, be constituted for the Province of Orissa. On 30th April 1948, the Governor-General of India issued the Orissa High Court Order on the strength of recommendation by the committee providing for constitution of the High Court for the Province of Orissa from 5th July 1948. Later, by Orissa High Court (Amendment) Order 1948, the date of formation was changed to 26 July, 1948.
The High Court of Orissa came into being was established on 26th July 1948 at Cuttack thus fulfilling the aspirations of the Odia people. The High Court started with four Judges including the Chief Justice,
The High Court started functioning from an existing Civil Court building from 26th July, 1948 onwards. This was a two-storied structure in brick-red color, constructed in 1913.
To meet the growing demand of space, a plan was drawn up for an eight storied new building with carpet area of nearly 1.68 lakh square feet in conformity with the modern-day architecture blended with traditional aesthetic sense. Construction of the new building of the High Court began in 2008 and was completed in 2012 at the cost of around Rs. 65 crores. It has provision for 25 court rooms including the new court room of the Chief justice, Judges’ lounge, video conferencing hall, chambers of the Advocate General, Senior Advocates’ lounge, Bar Association Hall apart from basement parking for two-wheelers of employees with adequate security arrangements. The building was inaugurated on 11th November, 2012 and made functional on 2nd January, 2014.
The century-old court building has now been designated as a heritage building. However, some of the courts and offices of the registry are still functioning from there.
Since the High Court of Orissa was established and started functioning on 26th July, 1948, the High Court of Orissa is celebrating its 75th Year (26th July, 2022 to 26th July, 2023).
https://www.mycitylinks.in/orissa-high-court-75-years-of-evolution
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orissa_High_Court
The High of Orissa (now Odisha) istampgallery.com
