“We are not hearing this. We have received 58 volumes of paper,” CJI Ramana said in a case. “We have to engage a lorry to transport the papers,” the CJI said, drawing attention to what has become a very usual occurrence in every high-stakes case in the top court.
“This is not funny. Volumes and volumes are filed to terrorise judges so that they can’t read or hear the cases,” the CJI said, hinting at “lobbies” at work to intimidate judges by sheer paper work so that the case never comes up at all. He was sitting today alongside Justice Surya Kant.Solicitor General Tushar Mehta who appeared for the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) in the case discounted any such possibility.
“We are not going to hear the matter today. You all sit together and file a convenience compilation,” the CJI said, posting the case for a further hearing on Aug 18.
Paperwork despite the court promoting e-filing, and cutting down on insisting on physical copies has always been the bane of the justice delivery system. Tonnes and tonnes of paper not only result in lakhs of trees being cut down every year, but also further bog down the system known for its delays. Truckloads of paper may seem an impossibility but are a regular feature in all high-stakes commercial cases. Copies of appeals, judgement appealed from and documents for and against the case and annexures are not only produced but in separate sets for each of the judges in the case to read individually.As a result, judges are a harried lot and keep adjourning these cases for lack of time to read these voluminous documents.
The case involved a challenge to the new TRAI rules issued in Jan 2020 which set a cap on the MRP to be charged for every channel by a broadcaster. Though the Bombay High Court has since upheld the rules, these have been challenged by the Indian Broadcasting & Digital Foundation.
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