Department of Justice, in its communication dated November 26, 2015 on the matter taken up with Rajya Sabha committee on Petitions, revealed that a meeting of Chairpersons of Computer Committees of High Courts chaired by Supreme Court Judge Justice Madan B Lokur (Judge in-charge of e-Committee of Supreme Court) on August 2-3, 2014 emphasised that for sake of uniformity, A-4 size paper-sheets should be used in preparing orders, judgements and depositions. But it is regretting that British legacy to continue with legal-size paper still continues.
Presently A-4 size paper (29.5 cms x 21 cms) is most commonly used size of paper-sheets. All photocopiers used in homes and offices are mostly equipped to handle this size of paper-sheets only. Distinct size of legal paper-sheets for filing and use in courts which is 5 cms longer at 34.5 cms x 21 cms. Now this needs to be abolished immediately as per recommendations of committee of Judges made on August 2-3, 2014. System will then become user-friendly and people will not have to rush outside for photo-copying bigger sized legal-papers. Even files are usually designed to have normal A-4 size paper-sheets.
Union government should take up matter with concerned international authorities to have standard usable paper-sheets in square form of 25 cms x 25 cms instead of present practice of having rectangular paper-sheets. Such square-sheets were quite common for bank-ledgers before computerisation. However if rectangular paper-sheets are to be continued, then their size should be modified according to true metric-units say 30 cms x 20 cms. Even computer-stationary used at dot-matrix printers should also have usable size (without perforation) as that of standard paper-sheets.
Subhash Chandra Agrawal
(The views expressed by the author in the article are his/her own.)
