NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court has directed all courts and tribunals to adopt a uniform pattern for judgements writings, having paragraphs with serial numbers, in order to improve overall readability and accessibility.
"It is desirable that all courts and tribunals, as a matter of practice, number paragraphs in all orders and judgements in seriatim," a bench of Justices Krishna Murari and Ahsanuddin Amanullah said.
In the directions issued on an appeal filed by B S Hari, the top court found that the judgement passed by the Punjab and Haryana High Court, was not numbered paragraph-wise.
The top court ordered its own Secretary-General to circulate this judgement to the Registrars General of all High Courts, to place it before the Chief Justices, to consider adoption of a "uniform format for judgements and orders, including paragraphing".
The Chief Justices may direct the Courts and Tribunals subordinate to their High Courts accordingly as well, the bench further added.
The top court also pointed out the Supreme Court in the past in 'Shakuntala Shukla v State of Uttar Pradesh' (2021) SCC had the occasion to observe: A judgement should be coherent, systematic and logically organised.
Likewise, in 'State Bank of India v Ajay Kumar Sood', (2022), the Supreme Court had opined, "It is also useful for all judgments to carry paragraph numbers as it allows for ease of reference and enhances the structure, improving the readability and accessibility of the judgements. A Table of Contents in a longer version assists access to the reader, the bench added.
