High Court Bar Association

The Orissa High Court Bar Association was registered on 5th September, 1961 under Societies Registration Act, 1860. Mr. L.K. Das Gupta was the first President and Mr. Gangadhar Rath was the first Secretary of the Association. Presently, the Association is headed by Mr. Jagabandhu Sahoo, Senior Advocate.

Office Bearers of the High Court Bar Association
Elected on 26th March 2021 for a term of one year.
President
Sri Jagabandhu Sahoo, Senior Advocate
Vice- President
Sri Devi Prasad Dash, Advocate
Secretary
Dr. Jitendra Kumar Lenka, Advocate
Joint Secretary
Sri Pranaya Swain, Advocate
Assistant Secretary
Sri Tapas Kumar Acharya, Advocate
Assistant Secretary (Library)
Sri Bijay Kumar Mishra, Advocate High Court of Orissa

Executive Body Members
Sri Abhisek Mohanty
Sri Soumya Kanta Tripathy
Byomkesh Tripathy
Siba Prasad Mishra
Thakur Sangram Singh
Bibhudutta Barik
Pradip Kumar Mishra
Ramakrushna Mishra

Activities during the year

Observance of Lawyers’ Day
Statue of Utkal Gourav Madhusudan Das was unveiled on the Lawyers’ day on 28th April, 2021 at the library building of Orissa High Court Bar Association. The statue was inaugurated by the Chief Justice in presence of the Judges, High Court of Orissa.

Vaccination of Lawyers
A Committee of three Judges was constituted by the Chief Justice to look into the grievances of the Bar regarding the challenges posed by the pandemic. With the intervention of the Committee, arrangements for vaccination of lawyers were made. One nodal doctor and one nodal officer were assigned with the task of undertaking measures for vaccination and treatment of members of the Bar. A vaccination team was constituted under Vaccination Program for inoculation of members, spouse and family. Nearly 9000 members, spouse, families were vaccinated under the vaccination program. A COVID Care Team of the Bar Association was constituted for providing assistance for COVID testing and arrangement of ambulance, medicines, hospitalization and other allied services. A large number of members including spouse and family were benefited under the scheme. Subsequently, due to the efforts of the Bar the above medical assistance were provided to the District Bar Associations of the State. The Bar conveys sincere gratitude to the Chief Justice and the Committee for timely intervention.

Health Camp
A mega health cardiology check up camp was organized in the Convention Hall of the High Court Bar with the co-operation of AMRI Hospital, Bhubaneswar on 11.11.2021 with successful participation of large number of members of our Bar.

Advocates Welfare Fund
Resolution was passed by Executive Committee opposing implementation of Corpus Fund Stamp introduced by Orissa State Bar Council under the Orissa Corpus Fund Stamp Rules, 2020.

Welfare Scheme 2010 containing Clause 2 (L) under Chapter 1, Clause 15 (I) and 16 of Chapter VII of the High Court Bar Association Member’s Welfare Scheme- 2010 were amended and value of Welfare Fund Stamp to be affixed by the Advocates/ Senior Advocates on the Vakalatnama/ Memo of Appearance was enhanced from Rupees 20/- to Rupees 50/- in case of advocates and from Rupees 50/- to Rupees 100/-in case of Senior Advocates. The High Court Registry was intimated to incorporate the amendment by appropriately amending Rule 6-A of the Orissa High Court Rules.

The Welfare Committee resolved to enhance the amount payable to legal heir in case of death of any member of the Bar from Rs.10,000/- to Rs.20,000/-. The same is currently enhanced to Rs. 1,00,000/- (Rupees one lakh) those who are members of the Welfare Scheme as amended in 2021 upon one time contribution of Rs. 1500/-.

Resolution was passed by the General Body for introducing One Time Membership of the Welfare Scheme on payment of Rs.1500/- for participation and availing benefit under the Welfare Scheme. The members and their legal heirs shall be eligible to get enhanced benefit in case of death, accident and treatment of various diseases/ailments.

Negotiation is in progress with reputed insurance companies for providing long term benefit to the participant members under the Welfare Scheme.

Hands-on Training of Lawyers for e-Services
In order to facilitate usage of e-Services launched by the High Court a Hands- on Training for lawyers was organized on 14th August, 2021. The Lawyers who participated in the training were provided practical sessions on e-Filing, e-Payment of Court Fee and other e-Services.

Seminar
A Seminar was held on 10th December, 2021 under the initiation of by Sri Jagannath Research Institute, Bhubaneswar in collaboration with High Court Bar Association on “International Human Rights and Role of Lawyers”.