Judges' Library

The Bombay High Court has a well equipped Library for the Hon'ble Judges, located at the Ground floor of the Main Building.  The Library caters to the requirements of Hon'ble Judges by providing latest case laws, legal news, articles, commentaries and law reports to enable them to discharge their responsibility effectively.  The Main Judges' Library is located at Bombay.  There are Judges' Libraries at the Benches of Nagpur, Aurangabad and Goa.

Mission

Ensure Excellence in Legal Information Services to all the stakeholders, through continuous improvement in the quality of the Library processes and enrichment of manpower.

Vision

Creation and Maintenance of Legal Knowledge Wealth through conscious and consistent updation and upgradation of Information and Knowledge processes through technological and manpower development to provide support to the Judiciary in facing ever increasing challenges.

Values

The Personnel of the Judges' Library uphold the values of hardwork, teamwork, commitment, honesty and integrity.

Stakeholders

The Honourable Judges' of the Bombay High Court, Officers of the-Registry, Personnel of the Bombay High Court.

Library Committee

The Honourable the Chief Justice appoints the Judges of the Library Committee of the Bombay High Court which is Chaired by a Senior High Court Judge and two other Sitting Judges as its members.  The Library Committee regulates and controls the functioning of the Library.

Collection

The Library collection comprises of Law Commentaries, Law Reports, Government Gazettes, Bare Acts (Central and Maharashtra Acts), Law Commission Reports, Manuals and General Books.  The Total book collection is approximately 125,000.  The Law Commentaries are classified as per Dewey Decimal Classification Scheme and are arranged subject-wise as per class numbers.  The Bare Acts are presently arranged alphabetically and are given alphabetical code number.  The Indian and Maharashtra Government Gazettes are arranged year wise and part wise.  Rare books collection includes the Constitution of India, Young India and Harijan of Mahatma Gandhi and book on ancient Hindu Law.

Information Technology

The Bombay High Court Judges' Library has viewed technology as a means to offer efficient and effective library services and to add new services to help carry out the mission of the library.  Two major initiatives are developing a Law Library management Software and Developing E-Law Library Web Pages.  Both these projects were done in-house.
The Primary initiative was to develop to Special Law Library Management Software with the help of National Informatics Centre (N.I.C.), Mumbai.  The system is developed using LAMP technology.


Digitization Project

The Library has procured "Bookeye 4" publication scanner for sanning and building a repository of all important legal documents of Bombay High Court.  The pilot project has been started with digitization of the old judgments and other important documents of historical value.  The digitization project will include scanning of original judgments, judgments from the old law  reports like the Bombay High Court Reports, Moore's Indian Appeals, I.L.R. Bombay, legislation from the Bombay & Maharashtra Gazette and any other documents of historical importance.  The digitization will help us to preserve out judgments and build our "Bombay High Court Repository" which will help the legal scholars and researchers to access the information.

Infrastructure

The Bombay High Court Judges' Library is fully air-conditioned.  There is one Library Server, 4 thin clients and 4 personal computers.  There is a photocopy machine for providing photocopying services to the Honourable Judges.  The Library also has Flat bed scanners, a bar-coding printer, bar-coding scanner and a CD-Writer.  Similar facilities are available in the Libraries of the Benches also.

Services

The Library provides electronic and print source material, research assistance, information retrievel, indexes and judgments publications, photocopy services alongwith current awarness services and selective dissemination of information to the Hon'ble Judges of Bombay High Court.  Journal articles on various subject like Human Rights, Criminal Justice, Environment etc. are compiled for ready reference of the Hon'ble Judges'.  The index of the journal articles is maintained in the Library Management Software.