HC refers to its rule making panel PIL to reduce paper use by double sided printing

The Delhi High Court today asked its rule making committee to consider a PIL seeking double-sided printing of judicial records, as against the prevalent practice of single-side printing, to reduce paper consumption by courts here.

A bench of Chief Justice Rajendra Menon and Justice C Hari Shankar, however, declined to issue a direction asking the Centre to write to the rule making committee to make the appropriate changes in the prevalent practice of paper usage by the high court and the 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 law within eight weeks.

The direction by the court came on the plea by Centre for Accountability and Systemic Change (CASC) which claimed that printing both sides of the paper would result in saving more trees and water, which are used in manufacturing 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 paper usages, but the court refused to do so and disposed of the PIL.

CASC, in its petition filed through advocate Gaurav Pathak, claimed that Delhi alone was responsible for 8300 metric tons of waste paper every day and only 27 per cent of it was recycled.

Apart from that approximately 10 litres of water was required to create one piece of paper, the plea also claimed.

It said, "One sided printing came into practice only because in earlier times typewriters were used and the papers used be thin. Consequently, double side prints were not feasible due to printing marks coming all on the paper. However, modern day printers are efficient and the paper quality has improved.

"Mandating double side print would halve the requirement of paper, which is in line with the idea of Digital India and will also save the space required to store them."