No doctor’s scrawl, make copies of judgments legible: High Court

The problem of illegible handwriting, earlier synonymous with doctors’ prescriptions, is now plaguing judges.

The problem of illegible handwriting, earlier synonymous with doctors’ prescriptions, is now plaguing judges. Delhi High Court judges are finding it difficult to make sense of ‘certified copies’ of various orders and judgments of the lower courts as they can barely be read. Judgments on poor quality paper or bad prints are not only a strain on judicial officers,they also waste precious court time.

Certified copies are the ones issued by the lower courts to parties involved in a civil or a criminal case on request. They are generally photocopies of original documents and attached to the appeal filed by the litigants in the higher court.

Things are likely to change and reading judgements bound to be less taxing for High Court judges after a circular was issued to all lower courts.

The circular, forwarded to the nine district and sessions judges by the Registrar General of the High Court, unequivocally states all the civil and criminal court judicial officers are to ensure that judgments are printed in a manner that their copies are legible.

“Kindly issue necessary instructions to all judicial officers under your control and under the control of other district judges to ensure that the orders or judgements passed by them should be in good prints so that certified copies obtained from them are legible,” it reads.

In order to bring the directive to the knowledge of not only the judges but all the other court staff responsible for handing over the certified copies of the judgments to the litigants, copies of the circular have also been issued to the copying agency, administrative wing and the computer branch.

A court staffer said there were no specific guidelines on the subject.

Story continues below this ad

“There are no definite directions regarding the font to be used or the font size to ensure uniformity,” he said.

Talking to Newsline, a former judge of High Court said the administrative decision was needed as it would not only save precious judicial time but would also lessen chances of misreading.

“Earlier, various interim orders were handwritten by lower court judges but now most are computer-typed. Issuing a directive to ensure good prints would indeed be of great help,” he said.