Legal Paper Vs A4 Paper: Law Students Write To CJI, Make Case For Uniform Use Of A4 Size Paper For Accessible Justice

Three law students have written to the Chief Justice of India, Ranjan Gogoi, urging him to make A4 size paper the sole paper format to be used for "all purposes" in all judicial and quasi-judicial forums rather than "disorganised" use of legal paper, also called legal-size paper, for some purposes and A4 paper for some.

Abhinav Singh, Akriti Agarwal and Lakshya Purohit have written to the CJI, and also to the Members of the e-committee and the Ministry of law and justice, requesting for uniformity in the usage of A4 size paper in pleadings as per the Supreme Court Rules, 2013 and all other purposes.

The Indian Legal Paper is 14 inches long and 8.5 inches wide while an A4 paper is 11.7 inches long and 8.3 inches wide. The former is thicker and denser and therefore, expected to last longer.

"Currently, in most judicial and quasi-judicial bodies in India, an exclusively designed size of paper called the legal-size paper is being used for pleadings. However, in some high courts and district courts and quasi-judicial bodies, a combination of both legal size paper and A4 Size paper is being used.

"This disorganised and unreasonable practice of using different papers at different places is not just creating hindrance for people in accessing justice both inside and outside the court but is also rendering the entire legal system non-uniform and arbitrary," says their letter to the CJI.

"This is making our legal system unfriendly and non-accessible," it adds.

The three law students rely on RTI response from CPIO, Supreme Court of India containing the extracts of the discussion of high court computer committee's chairperson and Central Project Committee from 2014 which states, "It was emphasised that for the sake of uniformity, PDF format, Unicode and A-4 paper size should be used in preparing orders/judgments/ depositions etc".

The students also highlight the ground reality as they mention how within the Supreme Court premises, the photocopy vendor charges Rs 2 for copying legal size paper and Re 1 for A-4 size paper.

"The cost difference and the financial burden between the two paper sizes is double. If photocopying a legal-size paper costs government Rs 1 crore on the whole, it might save Rs 50 lakh of public money if use of A4 size paper is implemented across all judicial and quasi-judicial bodies," they say.

Besides, the three students referred to Order No XV Rule 1 of the Supreme Court Rules, 2013 which also mandates use of A4 size paper in every petition.

"As per our limited knowledge, usage of legal size paper is British Colonial Practice which is being continued till this day.

"Much to our surprise, the Supreme Court of UK and that of USA have themselves been using A4 size paper and fulfilling the prime purpose of administration of justice i.e. easy, speedy and accessible justice to all," they claim.

They have urged the CJI to direct the concerned authorities in the Supreme Court to bring in practice a uniform usage of an A4 Size paper for all pleadings from a particular date and to direct all high court and all quasi-judicial forums to follow suit.

Click here to download the Letter