End use of legal size paper, CJI urged
A4 sheets are more economical to photocopy, law students say in letter
06/10/2019, KRISHNADAS RAJAGOPAL , ,NEW DELHI
The Supreme Court rules mandate A4 sheets but they have been ignored.
Three law students have written to Chief Justice of India (CJI) Ranjan Gogoi to drop the colonial practice of using legal size paper across courts in India and opt for the commonly available A4 size sheets for case records.
“The government and corporates are the biggest litigants, both of which carry out their internal affairs by use of A4 size paper. Use of legal size paper is only the result of British colonial practice, which is still being continued without any logic. Even in countries like the U.K. and U.S., their entire legal system make use of A4 size paper,” they said.
Besides, Abhinav Singh, Akriti Agarwal and Lakshya Purohit informed the CJI that A4 paper was more economical to photocopy, given the numerous copies of case records courts require litigants to file. Photocopying was a separate industry within court complexes. Copies of pleadings depended on the number of parties, records and also the number of judges on the Bench.
For example, in the Ayodhya appeals, the court records alone filled 15 huge steel boxes. The five civil suits had numerous defendants.
Copies had to be made for each one, and most importantly, five separate copies of every record for each of the judges on the Bench. The photocopies alone would cost a fortune for the litigants.
The letter pointed out that photostat vendors charged ₹2 for copying the legal size paper and ₹1 for A4 paper.
For the CJI, who heads the Ayodhya Bench, the September 30 letter from the three students may come as an eye-opener.
In fact, the Supreme Court rules also mandate A4 size sheets. But old habits die hard in legal practice, and the rule is ignored.
The students told the CJI that even the U.K. and U.S. Supreme Courts did not use legal size sheets and preferred their more modern A4 counterparts mostly because the latter were easily available.
A4 sheets are more economical to photocopy, law students say in letter
06/10/2019, KRISHNADAS RAJAGOPAL , ,NEW DELHI
The Supreme Court rules mandate A4 sheets but they have been ignored.
Three law students have written to Chief Justice of India (CJI) Ranjan Gogoi to drop the colonial practice of using legal size paper across courts in India and opt for the commonly available A4 size sheets for case records.
“The government and corporates are the biggest litigants, both of which carry out their internal affairs by use of A4 size paper. Use of legal size paper is only the result of British colonial practice, which is still being continued without any logic. Even in countries like the U.K. and U.S., their entire legal system make use of A4 size paper,” they said.
Besides, Abhinav Singh, Akriti Agarwal and Lakshya Purohit informed the CJI that A4 paper was more economical to photocopy, given the numerous copies of case records courts require litigants to file. Photocopying was a separate industry within court complexes. Copies of pleadings depended on the number of parties, records and also the number of judges on the Bench.
For example, in the Ayodhya appeals, the court records alone filled 15 huge steel boxes. The five civil suits had numerous defendants.
Copies had to be made for each one, and most importantly, five separate copies of every record for each of the judges on the Bench. The photocopies alone would cost a fortune for the litigants.
The letter pointed out that photostat vendors charged ₹2 for copying the legal size paper and ₹1 for A4 paper.
For the CJI, who heads the Ayodhya Bench, the September 30 letter from the three students may come as an eye-opener.
In fact, the Supreme Court rules also mandate A4 size sheets. But old habits die hard in legal practice, and the rule is ignored.
The students told the CJI that even the U.K. and U.S. Supreme Courts did not use legal size sheets and preferred their more modern A4 counterparts mostly because the latter were easily available.
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