The Supreme Court of India decided to shift from legal papers to papers of A4 sizes, and from one sided printing to double sided printing in April 2020. The action resultantly led to the SC saving 1 Crore Papers a year.
The pioneering initiative towards this sustainable, environment friendly approach was made by Chief Justice SA Bobde. Further recommendations and inputs were provided by a committee of Justice S Ravindra Bhatt and Hemant Gupta.
Though the decisions of the committee were not welcomed by a major batch, on April 1, 2020 the Supreme Court mandated that filing thereon be done in papers of A4 sizes, and in two side printing rather than 1 side printing. Legal size papers are 23% bigger in size than the A4 size papers.
Another modification that greatly worked in reducing the paper count was the decision made by the committee in reducing the number of copies from 4 to 2. The line and margin spacing was also reduced. 50 lakh pages, as suggested, have been reduced by this additional modification.
The High Courts of Delhi, Calcutta, Tripura, Kerala, and Bombay have all been functioning on the same lines of thought. Many student activists had earlier suggested such a model to the Supreme Court before its actual inception
The Supreme Court has set such a grand example of working collectively towards a sustainable and protected Environment by the judicious use of available resources
