The Tamil Nadu Judicial Academy (TNJA), the training centre for mid career judicial officers, will soon go hi-tech, with the launch of video conferencing facility. Judicial officers in the cadre of munsiff, sub-judges, fast track judges, district and high court judges stand to benefit from the e-learning process. The tendency to commit crime is still very high in society, and with the emergence of new frontiers such as Narco analysis, DNA assessment and cyber crime detection, there are many key areas for relearning , felt judicial officials.
The advanced method of re-engineering themselves will greatly benefit the legal community, said SP Srivatsava, registrar, National Judicial Academy, Bhopal, which introduced video conferencing facility more than two years ago. "The interaction with judges from other states, and sharing of ground level experiences will greatly enhance the learning curve," he added.
Visiting legal luminaries from other states and foreign countries, and local judges in states will extend value addition to officials not only in Chennai but elsewhere also. "Practically all courts in the districts have the infrastructure to engage in technology-facilitated dialogues and instead of searching their library catalogues for case studies and transcripts of completed cases, everyone can interact simultaneously, and education will percolate," felt G Jayachandran, director of TNJA. "Instead of taking resource persons to individual districts which is often a time constraint, judicial officers can interact with them through the facility. It can also network with judicial bodies in other countries," he added.
TNJA has been organising training programmes on various issues including time management, forensic sciences and talks by police personnel, but the video conferencing facility will help impart training, offer training to others and offer exchange of ideas on various issues.
A 50-inch television monitor and a huge projector are already in place at TNJA , the state's only such facility, and the broadband connection is currently being pilot tested. Equipped with a Polycam camera capable of swiveling 360 degrees, the proceedings can pan across any conference room , and is operated by a remote control device. Capable of connecting to six centres at any given time, the facility was to have been inaugurated on Tuesday, but has been postponed by two weeks, to smoothen technical glitches if any, arising out of ISDN connections.
