Use of Double Sided A4 Papers For Filing: Delhi HC Asks Administrative Side To Take Up The Matter

Delhi High Court has observed that the issue of mandating the use of double-sided A4 pages for filing procedures shall be taken up by the administrative side of the court.

While hearing a plea filed by Centre for Accountability and Systematic Change, the Division Bench of Chief Justice DN Patel and Justice Hari Shankar will next take up the matter on April 16.

The order has come in a petition which seeks a direction to be issued to the Registry as well as all the subordinate courts in the city to mandatorily follow the use of double-sided A4 pages for filing procedures.

It was argued by the Petitioner that such a change in the filing procedure, just in High Court itself, may save approximately 6.7 lakh pages. This would result in the saving of 80 trees and 67 lakh litres of water in one month alone.

Moreover, if the same is extended to all the District Courts in Delhi, it would save 72.53 lakhs pages, which in turn will save 870 trees and 7.25 crore litres of water in one month.

It was highlighted in the petition that:

'As per various reports, it takes approx. 10 litres of water to create one page of paper. As per reports, a tree produces approx. 8333.3 pages. Paper products make up the largest component of municipal solid wastes. India is one of the biggest waste-creators and more than 1.5 lakh metric ton of solid waste is generated every day. Delhi has become a gas chamber and is alone responsible for approx. 8700 metric tons of solid waste every day. Moreover, only 20% of the solid waste is processed, while the remaining 80% pollutes the environment.'

Petitioner also went on to submit that even the apex court has mandated the use of double-sided pages. In addition to this, High Courts in Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, and Punjab & Haryana have also allowed for the usage of double-sided papers.

Further, it was also argued by the court that mandating double-sided pages would halve the requirement of paper, which is in line with the idea of Digital India and will also save the physical space required to store them.