State Judicial Academies

The State Judicial Academies play a lead role in Judicial Education of Judges across the Country. A brief round up of the activities of the State Judicial Academies is as follows

TAMIL NADU STATE JUDICIAL ACADEMY
The Tamil Nadu State Judicial Academy was established on April 23, 2001 in order to enhance Professional Competence of the Judges and to promote "Judges of the future". The Academy "Re-creates" Judges by providing new skills, changing attitudes (in a positive way) and improving knowledge. The main priorities of the Academy are as follows:

1. Vibrant Judiciary is the basis of a flourishing Democracy.
2. Judicial Education and training are the strategies through which judicial reform can be brought out.
3. The World of training must be full of enjoyment, exhilaration and ecstasy.
4. The Curricula should provide for Skills.

• In assessing evidence
• Decision-making
• Judgment writing
• Case Management

5. Curricula should give a special focus on

• Judicial Accountability
• Judicial ethics and conduct
• Sensitivity training in contemporary social issues
• Personality Development

6. Benefit of technological innovation should reach the poor and needy, to make access to justice meaningful. Hence all the Judges and staffs should be trained in computer skills.
7. Early resolution of disputes is an essential element of social peace and harmony. Inordinate delay, escalating cost of litigation and inequality in the system sometimes make the delivery of justice on unattainable goal. As directed, u/s 89 CPC, duty is cast upon the court to refer the dispute to Alternative Resolution. Judges and lawyers should be familiarized with ADR system."

The following Workshops and programmes were held recently, for promoting judicial education:

• District Level Continuing Education Workshop
  Instead of calling the participants to the Academy, the Academy goes to the districts to hold workshops. All the twenty nine districts in Tamil Nadu were covered. The duration of each such workshop two and a half fays. The individual participants are required to send details of their pendency and the nature of problems that they face in their courts. The resource persons are accordingly briefed and a strategy is devised in order to tackle the specific problem. During the workshop these problems are analyzed and a solution is arrived at.
  
  
• 5S Practitioners Certification programme
  This programme is aimed at teaching the judges how to identify things which are no longer needed, to label them and then to remove them. The space so created will be of much use for manageability and gives a tidy look. The Academy believed that this would enhance the sense of satisfaction and productivity will therefore be increased. The Academy gave this training to the Officers of the Hon'ble High Court of Madras and the District Judges who in turn will disseminate this concept to their subordinates and motivate them and ultimately, the judiciary will be fine tuned.

JUDICIAL OFFICER'S TRAINING INSTITUTE(JOTI), NAGPUR
The Judicial Officer's Training Institute, Nagpur ,during the present quarter, conducted a Refresher Course for a batch of twenty Civil Judges, Junior Division and Judicial Magistrates of the First Class. The Programme was for a duration of ten weeks. The goals of the training module which the Institute is well set to achieve inter alia include

1. to understand the role of a Judge
2. to develop the necessary judicial skills by adopting right vision, attitude and approach
3. orientation (to cultivate a strong desire to do justice and to brace up to discharge the onerous duty of a Judge)
4. acquiring skills of writing judgments/orders, both in English and Marathi
5. to acquire knowledge and its application and to translate law into action
6. to develop proper management skills, particularly to achieve Delay and Arrears Reduction and thereby deliver timely justice. This was achieved through arranging lectures, interactive sessions, group discussions and workshops.

KERALA JUDICIAL ACADEMY, KOCHI
For the past two decades, the Kerala Judicial Academy has been organizing a number of events, helping the Judicial Officers to enkindle and sustain the urge to acquire knowledge and skills for the better dispensation of justice. The activities of the Academy in a nutshell are the following:

Training Programme

• Induction course for the newly recruited Munsiff/Magistrates
• Refresher courses for the Judicial Officers
• District level training Programmes for the Judicial Officers
• Pre-service training for the newly appointed Principal Counselors of the Family Courts
• Pre-examination training for the SC/ST candidates appearing for the Judicial Service examination
• Training for the Mukthyars of Lakshadweep

Publication

• Publishes the journal, "Judicial Vision"

Refresher Courses

• A One day workshop on "Environmental Conservation and Sustainable Development for Munsiff/Magistrates" was conducted on August 18, 2007. The purpose of the workshop was to sensitize the officers on all issues pertaining to environment and ecology particularly on the major environmental problems like the "Green House effect", Global warming and Biopiracy.
• A Refresher Course cum Discussion was conducted on the Code of Criminal Procedure, Indian Penal Code, Indian Evidence Act, Code of Civil Procedure, Civil Rules of Practice and Criminal Rules of Practice for Munsiff/Magistrates on July 21, 2007. The programme which was for recently appointed Munsiff/Magistrates, was in order to discuss the problems faced by them in discharging their duties as Judicial Officers and also to assess their level of learning and skills.
• A Pre-Examination training for SC/ST candidates appearing for the Kerela Judicial Services examination (Main) was conducted from August 6-14 2007,. This programme aimed at preparing the candidates for the competitive examination by arranging classes based on the syllabi of the main examination.

BIHAR JUDICIAL OFFICERS TRAINING INSTITUTE (BJOTI)
Since inception of BJOTI on May 4, 2003, the activities of the Institute initiated and gained continuous momentum with passage of time. "Overall Improvement", being the root care, efforts was made to enhance the confidence and capacity of the trainees besides sharpening their adjudicating skill and attitude, which would be useful for their day-to-day work and speedy disposal. The target group is decided on the basis of need assessment and the yearly training calendar is prepared in advance on above assessment, which starts from the month of January and ends in the month of December every year.
Training programmes have been undertaken for 80 munsifs in two batches of 40 each since the beginning of the year .Till the month of August programmes have also been organized for 6 batches of Judicial Magistrate,Ist Class of 29 each. The programmes helped the participating Judicial Officer's to enhance their confidence and capacity for meeting day to day challenges of their work. Workshop on 'Case Management and Court Management' was also held on the 18th of March, 2007 where 10 fast track ADJ s who had a good disposal rate interacted with 30 other fast track ADJs and discussed various ways and means to enhance the disposal and also explored the ways to remove the hindrances coming in the path of disposal. The also published a journal 'Juris Ray' which contained articles and relevant decisions which can be helpful for the day to day work of the judicial officers of the state.

GUJARAT STATE JUDICIAL ACADEMY, AHMEDABAD
The GSJA, functioning from 1995, has trained hitherto more than 1314 judicial officers and 36 ministerial staff of the High Courts. The curriculum stresses on English & Computer language proficiency, personality development and mental fitness. During the training, objective and subjective examination are conducted on the subjects taught. Some of the programmes held recently in the Academy and their objective are as follows:

• "Advanced Civil process and Amendments in Civil Procedure Code": (July 19-21, 2007): The main aim of the programme was to strengthen the knowledge and skills of Judicial officers in civil procedure so as to strengthen their ability to use process effectively as a tool for delivering timely justice. Key important legal issues, latest amendments in the law and recent judgments of the apex court were discussed.
• "Role of Forensic Science in Criminal Justice System" (August 8-10, 2007) & "Role of Forensic Science in Criminal Justice System" (August 16-18 2007): Both the programmes aimed at strengthening the knowledge and skill of judicial officers on the role of forensic science in the Criminal Justice System, as a tool for delivering timely and better justice. Key important legal issues and recent judgments of the apex court were discussed.
• Legal Workshops
  For the legal workshop two subjects namely-
  a)Concept of 'plea bargaining' as amended in the code of Criminal Procedure
  b)Mediation, Conciliation, Arbitration and negotiated settlement of disputes were given to the judicial officers of each district in advance. They had to write a paper on each subject which were send to the Academy by the respective Principal District Judge.7

JUDICIAL ACADEMY OF JHARKHAND
The Academy has been thriving with the activities, involving as many stake holders of the Justice Dispensation System as possible from across the different walks of the society i.e. Judicial Officers, Lawyers, Ministerial Staffs, Probation Officers, Public Prosecutor and Senior Executive Functionaries. The Academic calendar for the year 2007-08 (From 1.4.2007 to 31.3.2008) comprises of as many as Twenty Four schedule courses which includes judicial officers of all cadres and also ministerial staffs of Civil Courts as well as High Court. Since January 2007 the Judicial Academy, Jharkhand has organized as many as ten different training courses & workshops.Programmes have also been organized on themes such as Human Rights & its Protection-Role of Sub-ordinate Courts, Motor Vehicle Claim Cases, Judicial Ethics, Speedy Disposal of Eviction (Title) Suits & Appeals,etc with the aim of exploring the critical issues and challenges that arise in these areas and find simple solutions to them.

The State Judicial Academies have been playing an active role in the field of judicial education.

Since the commencement of its training programme in February the Academy has been inviting Hon'ble Judges, eminent professors and Doctors and some other experts to give discourse to the Trainee Judicial Officers. On March 31 and April 1,2007 a legal symposium on 'Expert witnesses and their training-legal appraisal under the present judicial scenario'Also programmes on'Arbitration, Meditation and Conciliation', 'Human rights -its legislation and implementation', 'Extradition -its effect ,the procedure and provisions involved' have been complemented. The Academy is also in the process of publishing inaugural Journal/Newsletter at the end of October 2007

KARNATAKA JUDICIAL ACADEMY
Karnataka Judicial Academy was Inaugurated on the 7th of August,1999 .The objective of the Academy is to impart training to the Judicial officers of the State Government, particularly new recruits, besides conducting refresher courses to in service Judicial Officers and also to give training to the officers of the State Government connected with administration of Justice like, Police Officers ,Public Prosecutors, Government Advocates, Medical Officers, etc. Karnataka Judicial Academy's main aim is to provide an opportunity to the Judicial Officers of the State to develop their personality which would go a long way in enhancing their performance and thereby improving the quality of dispensation of Justice.

The Academy has been conducting a number of training programmes. Newly recruited Civil Judges (Jr.Dn) are required to undergo four months basic training. Refresher Course for in -service Civil Judges (Jr.Dn), Civil Judges(Sr.Dn) and District and Session Judges are also conducted periodically. Seminars and workshops are also conducted from time to time on various subjects of contemporary importance, like Human Rights, Environmental Law,etc. Also short term course for Officers of State Governments and staff of the High Court of Karnataka has been held.

ANDHRA PRADESH JUDICIAL ACADEMY
To provide comprehensive training facilities for State Judiciary, the High Court of Andhra Pradesh conceived an idea of establishing a nodal training institute and accordingly the Andhra Pradesh Judicial Academy was established and inaugurated on 28-07-1991.The aim of the Academy is the evolution of Judiciary into an ideal medium for dispensation of Justice by maintenance of highest standards of Judicial Education, improvement in the professional quality with a sense of social responsibility. The objective of the Academy is to provide comprehensive training and learning facility for the judiciary to acquire legal knowledge, managerial skills and social comprehensive for fair and fast adjudication and decision for better administration of Justice. The Academy has held work shops, seminars and courses on varied topics for all cadres of judicial officers.