The problem of illegibility, it appears, has become a crisis hard to get rid of in an institution not known for it — courts. The issue, usually synonymous with doctors, has been plaguing the Delhi High Court for long now, even prompting it to give out necessary directives to the trial court judges. But, a recent note by the High Court indicates that the problem pertaining to the “certified copies” of the judgments still persists.

Finding it too taxing to make sense out of “certified copies” of various orders and judgments, the High Court has, by way of a strongly-worded note, reminded the lower courts of the directive issued to them last November — “the copies should be in good prints so that the certified copies obtained from them are legible.”

Certified copies are 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 litigants in the higher court. However, judgments on poor-quality paper or bad prints become not only a strain on judges adjudicating them in the High Court, but they also waste precious court time.

Taking note of this, the circular forwarded to the nine district and sessions judges by the Registrar General of the High Court, refers to the previous directive and states, “Still, there have been many instances when certified copies filed in this court in appeal or revision have been found to be illegible, with a result that a lot of inconvenience is caused to the Honourable Courts while hearing and deciding matters.”

... contd.