My Farewell Speech !
To my dear and affectionate colleagues, past and present, I may say that I enjoyed with you and all those with whom I had an occasion to work all these years. You have been so affectionate towards me and my family, which made us, feels at home. I am indeed thankful to my Sister Judge and each and every one of my brother Judges individually. I shall never forget the pleasant company.
All the officers and staff in the Registry have sincerely discharged their duties, which made my work easier. It is not possible to name all those who were instrumental for my effective discharge of duties but a few of them can be mentioned. Registrar General Sri. N. Aanda, Registrar (Judicial) Sri. R. Venkatesh, Registrar (Vigilance) Sri. R.B.Budhhal, Registrar (Admn.) Sr. S.S. Kulkarni, Sri. N. Narayan , my Secretary, as also their predecessors, Sri A.C. Kabbin, former Registrar General and now my Brother Judge, Sri. A.S. Pachhapure, former Registrar (Vigilance) now is working as Special Judge, Sri. Kukkaje Ramakrishna Bhat, former Registrar (Judicial) now working as District Judge at Tumkur, have been of immense assistance to me in the discharge of my administrative functions and my thanks are due to all of them.
Karnataka Judiciary has switched on to scientific approach by streaming the judicial progress through computerization. In order to curtail the law’s delays, computerization has been taken up in the High Court and other lower Courts in Karnataka. The work of modernization of Justice delivery system for making it more effective and quick is almost completed in the High Court while considerable progress has been made in the lower Courts. Brother Justice G.C. Bharuka, former Judge of this High Court, after him Brother Justice R.V. Raveeendran, who is now the Chief Justice of Madhya Pradesh and now the Committee headed by Brother Justice S.R.Bannur Math, in a team spirit along with Officers and officials of NIC, have done tremendous work in this regard. I would like to place the same on record.
As the Patron-in-Chief of the Legal Services Authority, I had an occasion to devote my attention for the settlement of cases also. The members of the State Legal Services Authority, it’s Executive Chairman, former and present, and Member secretaries, past and present Chairmen of High Court Legal Services Committee, Member Secretary and other members, and staff of the Committee have worked hard to achieve the object of the Legal Services Authorities Act. In the beginning Brother Justice A.J. Sadashiva gave momentum to the activities of the State Authority. Thereafter, Brother Justice Raveendran, who was earlier functioning as Chairman of the High Court Legal Services Committee, took over as Executive Chairman and did yeomen service in an excellent manner with Member Secretary Sri. Arali Nagaraj and thereafter sri. A.M. Bennur and their staff. I may point out that up to the end of August 2004 a total number of 4532 Lok Adalat sittings have been held, a total number of more than one lakh of cases have been settled and an amount of more than 109 crores of rupees has been awarded as compensation in Motor Vehicle Accident and Land Acquisition cases. 1842 legal literacy and legal aid camps have been arranged in which more than 6 lakhs of people have been benefited. Permanent Lok Adalats have been established in 8 districts. The State Authority has been making tremendous contributions in the field of spreading legal awareness among the people of the State. A number of booklets and pamphlets containing the gist of various important statutory provisions have been published. I had an occasion to release five booklets on 09-11-2001. On 16-1-2003, another book on legal information to common people containing 25 law topics was released, with an abridged edition of the same booklet. Eight audio Cassettes containing songs on legal literacy were released on 12-4-2003. Audio cassettes have been brought out and musical recitals, dances and dramas, radio and television programmes have been arranged to spread legal awareness. All the concerned deserve appreciation for their commitment, dedicated, hard and sincere work.
