SPEECH DELIVERED BY HON’BLE MR.JUSTICE HARISH TANDON, HON’BLE THE CHIEF JUSTICE & PATRON-IN-CHIEF, ODISHA JUDICIAL ACADEMY ON THE OCCASION OF OATH TAKING CEREMONY OF CIVIL JUDGES (JUNIOR DIVISION) ON PROBATION OF 2023 BATCH ON 04.08.2025.
This is a momentous occasion that we are having 33 Judicial Officers in the kitty of the district judiciary. You also have successfully completed your degree course, and you were also successful in a competitive examination. Now you are going to adorn a very very noble profession as a Judicial Officer. It is not a seat or a chair, that you will adorn. It will remind you all the time your duties and responsibilities. You have taken oath. Please bear each and every words of the oath in your mind and heart. You know the legal subject. The training programme, which now you will be undergoing, will just teach you some skills, some techniques and above all the application of every principles and the nuances of law. It will definitely help you in discharging your solemn duties. There cannot be a straitjacket formula for court management, because every court has its unique problem. Once you are on the chair, you have to tackle and innovate your own management system with the sole object to impart justice. Integrity, patience, diligent handling the cases, and above all timely disposal of the cases, is the orden of the day. We have been facing a gargantuous accumulation of the cases in the dockets, and we are stressed hard to secure the disposal in a timely manner. But certainly no body would compromise quality over quantity. It is the quality and complete justice, which every citizen of the country aspires from a judicial system. I have a few words for all of you, as what should be the qualities, one should possess, to be a Judge. One is, you should be passionate about your work. If you don’t show your passion, I think you would not be able to achieve. Second is dedication. Next is discharge of duties diligently. Fourthly, never lose inquisitiveness, i.e. zeal to learn. Because law is such a vast subject, and it’s an ocean. More you go deep, you will find a new world, an unexplored world some times. So never lose the zeal to learn and to understand. You should be sober, you should be modest, you should be respectful to the members of the Bar and others. Lastly you should be firm in your decision. This is what I perceive as the qualities of a Judicial Officer, which every Judicial Officer must embrace, both in his heart and mind. We have been experiencing the accumulation of the cases, which are really exploding our dockets, and different innovative techniques and devices are being explored to ease out such burden. To my view, I think one of the important facet of this is the frequent granting of adjournments. The colossal grant of adjournment, mere on the drop of a hat, is not timely justice nor is it doing what you are expected to do as a Judicial Officer. If you secure timely justice, it will make the people to repose more confidence on our system, and therefore, it is your greater responsibility to see that the cases are disposed of. We have got good resource persons, who will give you the practical aspect of the judicial side. I think you will be enriched by their experience which they gathered while they were in the system for such a long time. I once again congratulate all of you to be a part of the judicial system, and I also congratulate all your respective parents for the tireless work, which they have done to you, for inculcating the values, the culture, the tradition and above all the integrity to be maintained. Once again I congratulate all of you and welcome you all to this judiciary.