Odisha chief minister Mohan Charan Majhi on Saturday inaugurated the Centre for Judicial Archives in Cuttack.

The facility has come up at a cost of ₹38 crore.

Till date, the centre has preserved approximately 75,000 judicial records predating 1950. Out of these, over 4,132 files comprising nearly 84,888 sheets have undergone scientific conservation, and 1,151 files have been digitised, sources in Orissa High
Court said.

The chief minister said the centre would preserve not only judicial records but also culture. “We are committed to providing all assistance including financial, administrative and technological.”

Law minister Prithviraj Harichandan said the centre will be a torch-bearer not only for the state but also for the nation.

Orissa High Court Chief Justice Chakradhari Sharan Singh has expressed the significance of setting up the Centre for Judicial Archives, as many endangered important historic records of the court failed to attract the attention of state archives for their preservation.

“The archive is meant for care, conservation and consultation of the oldest records. The archive is not a destination for the elite rather it will be a place for the marginalised to know that facts of their importance have been preserved in this centre,” Justice
Singh said.

He thanked the state government for providing ₹38 crore for the construction of the centre.

Justice Sanjeeb Kumar Panigrahi said: “By valuing and preserving our past, we not only honour our origins but also equip ourselves to envision and create a brighter and a more informed future. The absence of documented history erodes transparency, undermines justice, and weakens the foundation of equitable governance.”

Advocate-general Pitambara Acharya said: “Judicial records in India remained an untouched realm until May 2022, when the high court took the unprecedented step of establishing a judicial archives centre.

“This initiative emerged from the discovery of invaluable 19th and early 20th-century records in the courts of Odisha — records written in English, Odia, Persian, Telugu, Hindi, and Bengali. These documents are not just artefacts, they are treasures that hold the power to reconstruct the judicial and legal history of our state.”