The Delhi High Court on Monday asked its rule-making committee to consider a petition seeking double-sided printing of judicial records against the prevalent practice of single-side printing to reduce paper consumption by courts here.
Paper usage
However, a Bench of Chief Justice Rajendra Menon and Justice C. Hari Shankar declined to issue a direction asking the Centre to write to the rule-making committee to make appropriate changes in the prevalent practice of paper usage by the High Court and subordinate courts, saying “Let us not set a precedent of Union of India writing to the courts to make rules”.
It referred the matter to the appropriate rule-making committee of the High Court and asked it to take a decision in accordance with the law within eight weeks.
The direction by the court came on a plea by the Centre for Accountability and Systemic Change (CASC), which claimed that double-sided printing will result in saving more trees and water, which are used for manufacture of paper.
Appearing for CASC, advocate Virag Gupta urged the Bench to ask the Centre to write to the rule-making committee to make the appropriate changes in paper usage. CASC claimed that Delhi alone was responsible for 8,300 metric tonnes of waste paper daily and only 27% of that was recycled. The plea added that approximately 10 litres of water is required to create one piece of paper.
It said, “One-sided printing came into practice only because in earlier times typewriters were used and papers used to be thin. Consequently, double-side prints were not feasible due to printing marks on the paper. However, modern printers are efficient and paper quality has improved.”
