Step back in time to early 20th Century India, where Gopabandhu Das, a notable social reformer and the first Utkal Pradesh Congress Committee president, found himself in hot water with the law. His ‘libellous’ writing on the police in a leading newspaper had landed him in court. The ruling British government wanted to fix him in the case. As the case generated huge curiosity, the hearing took place in an open court under a tree. Suresh Chandra Bose, the elder brother of Subhash Chandra Bose and a judicial officer of Khordha, acquitted him due to a lack of evidence.
This slice of legal history, among many others, had nearly faded into obscurity, as silverfish nibbled on the pages in the High Court’s record room. A grand effort to restore invaluable legal documents has been underway since mid-2022 by the Centre for Judicial Archives (CJA). Situated across the road from the Orissa High Court, it aims to preserve these precious judicial records for future generations.
The CJA — a first of its kind in India — took shape from an effort of the Orissa High Court to write the history of the judicial system of the State in 2020. Though some judicial officers came out with a draft history based on available historical text, they stumbled upon numerous old records and judgments in 2021. Subsequently, the Orissa HC decided to base the history on these and other historical texts. Court records do not come under the purview of the archives department, and it is the duty of all the courts in India to take care of court records.
In March 2022, S. Muralidhar, the Chief Justice of the High Court of Orissa, sought cooperation from Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik to preserve old records and document judicial history. Within 10 days, the State government gave its nod and extended full support for establishment of the CJA on May 1, 2022.
Orissa High Court’s Record Room Digitisation Centre at Cuttack. | Photo Credit: BISWARANJAN ROUT
Recorded history
The centre is now in possession of about 51,308 fragile records of the High Court of Orissa and other district courts. The oldest record found so far dates back to 1808. The cases heard and adjudicated between 1813 and 1950 include 11,217 civil cases and 3,054 criminal. Pre-independence, the Sadar Diwani Adalat would deal with civil matters, while the Sadar Nizamat Adalat was set up to decide upon criminal cases. Most cases belonged to Bengal, Madras, and Central provinces. For court records after 1950, upto 1,999 files were procured from the High Court Museum; 3,606 from courts in Sundergarh, Balangir, Puri, Keonjhar, Balasore, Koraput, Mayurbhanj, and Kalahandi; and 31,432 files from the District Records Room, taking the collective archival collection to 51,308 files.
“We have created posts for law consultant, history consultant, and law researchers. Records from the 1950s are being digitized in digital record rooms. Court records prior to 1948 have been declared fragile records, which are conserved scientifically with help of INTACH (Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage). A conservation laboratory has been set up in the record room,” said Suman Kumar Mishra, Registrar (Judicial) of the Orissa High Court.
“The records are being catalogued. Important cases of Odisha’s judicial history are being identified. Some cases in which Madhusudan Das, doyen of the Odisha judiciary; or Janaki Nath Bose, father of Subhas Chandra Bose; or Sarat Bose, brother of Subhas Chandra Bose, had appeared, will be displayed in the CJA. Similarly, people will get to see cases pertaining to Gopabandhu Das during the freedom struggle,” said Mr. Mishra.
The fragile documents being handled carefully by a team member. | Photo Credit: BISWARANJAN ROUT
An interesting case is of Laxman Naik, a cult figure among tribals and a freedom fighter, who was hanged in Berhampur jail. He had submitted an appeal for supply of court records and approval for appeal. In the records, his name is Laxan Naiko and his thumb impression is still on the court documents.
Courts decades ago
In 1862, three High Courts were established at Bombay, Madras, and Calcutta. “Odisha was then part of the Bengal Presidency so we used to come under the Calcutta HC jurisdiction. In 1912, the Bihar province was carved out from the Bengal Province and Odisha came under Patna High Court. In 1916, a circuit bench of Patna High Court was established in Cuttack. Odisha became a separate State in 1936, and the Orissa High Court was established in 1948,” he added. A major part of southern Odisha continued to remain under the Madras High Court until 1936.
The CJA is blessed with judicial archival records written in Persian, English, Odia, and Telugu. The first judgment in Odia language is traced back to 1840. “Persian used to be official language till 1839. All case records till 1839 are exclusively in Persian. However, as the judicial system was so used to Persian, the language was in use till 1880,” said Lalatendu Das Mohapatra, CJA Director cum Officer on Special Duty, who has several decades of experience at the National Achieves of India.
Most of the Persian manuscripts are proposed to be translated by a Persian scholar. So far, 9,537 records have been catalogued, 768 records preserved, and 201 records consisting of 3,755 sheets have been digitized. Each scanned page is converted to a PDF in the Optical Character Recognition (OCR) mode (text files).
A view of one of the many old documents which are being restored and archived. | Photo Credit: BISWARANJAN ROUT
According to a deciphered court record written in Persian, a person called Raja Harihar got a favourable decree in 1808 around an encroachment case he has filed. The local thanedar (police) was directed to remove some wood placed by his neighbour — Raja Jagannath — from his land.
Salvaging records
When records older than 50 years old are received, they are often brittle, worm-eaten, and full of fungus. “We first keep them in fumigation chamber, an electrical device where old documents go through sterilization and deacidification. Insecticides are sprayed on files in an air-tight space. After nearly a week, the documents are brought out into the open for further treatment,” said Mr. Mohapatra.
After fumigation the files are de-stitched and sheets are chemically washed. In this process the insects are killed and fungus removed, after which all pages are considered restored. All the sheets are laminated with Japanese and German tissue paper. The papers are rubbed with chemicals and deacidified further before being sent for the digitization process. The deacidification does not harm the paper.
