Advocate Files PIL Before Bombay HC Seeks Directions To Mandate Use Of A4 Size Paper For All Filings [Read Petition]

When the matter came up before the bench of Chief Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice GS Kulkarni on Tuesday, Court directed the registry to place the matter before the Chief Justice on the administrative side to take an appropriate decision.

Advocate Ranjit Shinde along with Advocate Abhay Anturkar and Advocate Ajinkya Udane appeared on behalf of the petitioner, the 31-year-old Sujay Joshi.

Petitioner has contended that the Supreme Court has already issued a circular stating that filings in the judicial side will be in A4 size paper with both-sides printing from April 1 onwards. This was done to minimize consumption of paper. Moreover, High Courts at Tripura, Kerala and Karnataka have also allowed filing in A4 size paper.

On April 25, 2019, the Himachal Pradesh High Court issued rules for electronic filing in the High Court as well as subordinate courts in the State, the PIL states.

According to the petitioner, currently all the pleadings to be filed before this High Court on its original side are governed by the Bombay High Court Original Side Rules. The pleadings have to be -

1. Printed with double spacing between the lines

2. On durable fullscap paper

3. With an inner margin of about three and a half centimetres wide

4. On a single size of the sheet

Whereas, pleadings on the appellate side are governed by Bombay High Court Appellate Side Rules 1960.

The petitioners contend-

"The mandate to submit any pleading in a fullscap paper, with double spacing, wide left margin, and printed only on a single side of the sheet leads to tremendous wastage of paper. Interestingly to the best of the knowledge of the petition, the aforementioned Rules that were drafted decades ago were based on pre-Independence colonial practices. In the past, due to low thickness of paper and ink quality, the ink printed on one side of the paper would seep on the other side, making reading difficult.

With the advance in paper printing technology and ink related technology, such is no longer the case. Thus it is necessary for this High Court to revisit the aforementioned rules and issue appropriate directions in the contemporary sense to bring uniformity about the use of paper and printing thereon and to minimize consumption of paper, and consequently to save the environment."