Supreme Court Refuses To Entertain Petition To Allow Both Side Use Of A-4 Size Papers In All Courts & Tribunals

Supreme Court refused to entertain a petition seeking to allow both side use of A-4 size papers in all judicial and quasi judicial proceedings. The matter was heard by bench comprising of CJI UU Lalit, Justices Ravindra Bhat and Bela M Trivedi. 

The petition was filed by 'Youth Bar Association of India' which sought directions to High Courts', Tribunals, Judicial and Quasi-judicial authorities within the territory of India to consider changing rules to allow both side of a page to be used in all judicial proceedings. Necessary guidelines were sought in this regard.

The bench was however not convinced and advised the counsel to withdraw the matter. The petition was accordingly withdrawn. 

The petition had submitted that–

"As per the data issued by the Indian Paper Manufacturers Association (IPMA) the Indian paper industry accounts for about 4% of the world's production of paper. Per capita paper consumption in India is about 13 Kg which is likely to increase as much as 23.5 Kg by the year 2025."

As per the petition, the production of paper involves huge quantities of several natural resources such as trees and water in the form of raw material. Further, discharge of pulp and paper industry or effluent from the Effluent Treatment Plant (ETP) into rivers leads to decline in water quality in terms of high biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) or dissolved oxygen (DO) or rise of water toxins. Thus, as per the petition, the excessive usage of paper causes severe environmental damage. 

The petition added that–

"On a national scale, 13914226 (One Crore Thirty Nine Lakh Fourteen Thousand Two Hundred Twenty Six) cases have been filed in the sub-ordinate courts and 113012 (One Lakh Thirteen Thousand Twelve) new cases have been filed in High Courts alone. Considering all these cases to be of mere 50 pages, using single sided prints a total of 601775200 (Sixty Crore Seventeen Lakh Seventy Five Thousand Two Hundred) pages were used. Had both side of pages been used it would have been saved approx. 36,108 trees along with 3008876000 liters of water."

Accordingly, the petition had prayed to remand the cases which were pending before various High Courts seeking similar reliefs, for adjudication by the Supreme Court and to direct the respondents to allow both side use of A-4 size papers in all judicial and quasi judicial proceedings.

It may be noted that the regime of using A4 size paper with printing on both sides has been adopted and put in place in the Supreme Court of India and several other High Courts, such as Kerala High Court, Karnataka High Court, Tripura High Court, etc., and the colonial era practice of printing on Legal/Foolscap size paper with single side printing has been junked and done away with.

Several High Courts are however in the process of considering the same.

CASE TITLE: YOUTH BAR ASSOCIATION OF INDIA & ANR. v. UNION OF INDIA & ORS

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