Bombay HC dumps legal size paper for double-sided A4 prints

MUMBAI: A small step the Bombay high court took on Wednesday could mean a giant leap for the city’s and the state’s judiciary turning environment-friendly. A circular issued by the court’s administration allows the use of the smaller A4 size paper instead of the legal-size paper; a move that, lawyers and court officers say, could reduce paper usage by half.

The circular allows the use of A4 size paper, printed on both sides, for filing petitions, affidavits and other pleadings before the high court, and its benches at Nagpur, Aurangabad and Goa. Until now, the court accepted only legal size paper printed on one side, and there were no specifications on the fonts. The new circular specifies fonts (Times New Roman or Georgia), font

size (14) and the margins (5cm inner and 3cm outer). Advocate SR Nargolkar, who represents the high court administration, informed the division bench of chief justice Dipankar Datta and justice GS Kulkarni of the notification.

The effective reduction in paper size is 10% (330mm x 210mm for legal versus 297mm x 210 mm for A4), but the use of both sides for printing will potentially cut down paper consumption by half, a senior court officer said. “It is difficult to estimate how much paper is being used for filing proceedings before the HC, but this shift will cut usage by half and give us more space to store court records.”

Nargolkar was responding to a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by city lawyer Ajinkya Udane seeking directions to the court administration to shift to A4 size paper. His counsel, PR Katneshwarkar, submitted that the PIL was filed after an earlier petition with similar prayers had been disposed of, asking the petitioner to make a representation to the high court’s registrar general. Katneshwarkar informed the bench that though a representation was made, no decision was taken.