Law is a big waste of paper! 11 Billion sheets in a year. How?
The author of this article Silvy Sheetal is a Law Student at University Law College, Bhubaneswar, Odisha.
One of the great strengths of the Indian state is the independence of its judiciary. Judges have generally not been hesitant to strike down actions of the executive or the legislature when these actions have been in violation of the constitution. It is a remarkable achievement of Indian liberal democracy.[1] Every year, over 60,000 cases are presented before the Supreme Court of India. Each document in each case has to be filed in a specific format. For example, each document can only be typed in a 13-14 font size. They must also have a 3cm margin and be double-spaced. Apparently, the colonial legacy left behind where due to low paper and ink quality, the ink printed on one side of the paper would seep on to the other side, making reading difficult. According to the Quint the amount of paper used in the Supreme Court alone in a year, in accordance with estimation by IndiaSpend, each case requires 8 sets of files, and each file has about 100 pieces of paper. So, the paper used just by the SC in a year is 60,000x 8x 100= 48 MILLION PAPERS (Approx). [2]
Calculations Elaborated:
Major PIL’s filed and Solutions
Directed:
Now, this is not to say that these
papers are useless and used without any reason, but the number of options can
be minimized to use paper so that its usage can be brought down drastically which
seeks for a coordinated mechanism on the part of the Government, Judges,
advocates, court officers, etc.
Public interest litigation (PIL) was filed in
the SC by CASC on September 5, 2018, seeking directions to use paper printed on
both sides in pleadings and filings before the apex court.
·
Another PIL, filed on August 8, 2018, in the
Delhi High Court by CASC--with the above objective--said using paper printed on
both sides would have saved over 27,000 trees and 2,000 million liters water
based on the number of cases filed in one month before the subordinate courts
and high courts across the country. At present,
“legal size” paper, bigger than A-4 sheets, is used in the country’s courts. Chief
Justice of India S.A. Bobde had on January 14 directed the Supreme Court
registry to use A4-size sheets printed on both sides for internal
communications at all levels. A new circular dated March 5, which was uploaded
on the apex court website on Thursday, said A4-size paper would be accepted on
the judicial side from April 1, with required specifications. “It is notified
for the information of all concerned that the Competent Authority has been
pleased to direct that: With a view to bringing uniformity about the use of paper and
printing thereon and to minimize consumption of paper and consequently to save
the environment”, superior quality A4 size paper would be used, the circular
said. [4]
Working
Through Issued Guidelines:
The Supreme Court has taken several environment-friendly steps, issuing new
guidelines regarding the use of papers and the procedures of filing new cases.
“With a view to bringing about
uniformity in the issue of paper and printing thereupon and to minimize
consumption of paper and consequently to save the environment” the apex court
issued the following guidelines, a circular from the Secretary-general of the
Supreme Court said. They are:
- Superior quality 75 GSM, A4 size paper is to be used
with both sides being printed on with the font
being Times New Roman, font size 14 and one and a half line spacing
with a margin of 4 cm on left and right and 2 cm on the top and
bottom, in all the documents, to be filed in the Court.
- All the communications from the Registry will be sent
to the concerned Advocates – on – Record through email, followed by an SMS
alert on the registered mobile number of the concerned Advocate – on –
Record. The practice of sending communication through hard copy is to be discontinued.
- The filing counter of the Registry following the
existing procedure regarding fresh matters is allowed to accept Misc.
Applications, Review Petitions, Curative Petitions and Contempt Petitions
in disposed of matters in 1 set of original papers and 1 paperback and
once the defects are cured the rest of the paper books shall be filed.
- A common index has been allowed to be placed in first
volume in case there is more than one volume in a matter a separate index
for each volume shall be placed.
The first and the second directions
will come into force from 1st April and the rest will come into effect
immediately.[5]
The reason behind adding such calculative information’s
from leading sources to this blog is to
further, accentuate the brevity of the menace. Few points mentioned above can
help a lot in saving the environment, avoiding environmental hazards and saving
trees, before the disaster, spread its fangs. We, humans, have created technology for
our use; we cannot become bondslave of our creations using earth’s natural
resources instead think about giving back to the environment what we have taken
from it. The statistics laid down, the information’s regarding its cure,
elevated in writing can work as a brim of a light
to bring in the much-needed
future changes in generalia.
[1] Working
Paper No. 258, How to Modernise the Working of Courts and Tribunals in India, 25-March-2019,
https://www.nipfp.org.in/media/medialibrary/2019/03/WP_2019_258.pdf
[2] https://www.thequint.com/news/india/indian-judiciary-uses-eleven-billion-papers-in-a-year-a-million-tress-and-hundred-and-nine-billion-litres-of-water
[3] https://www.indiaspend.com/printing-paper-on-both-sides-in-sc-cases-saving-2000-trees-24000-tankers-of-water-study/
[4] https://www.telegraphindia.com/india/supreme-court-of-india-cuts-size-of-paper-for-petitions-to-control-environmental-degradation/cid/1753277
[5] SC
Guidelines To Cut Down Paper Use, India Legal, (March 12, 2020), https://www.indialegallive.com/top-news-of-the-day/news/sc-guidelines-cut-paper-use-92073.
Hela😄
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