Mumbai, Jul 14 (IANS): In an "eco-friendly move", the Bombay High Court has permitted the use of A4-size paper printed on both sides for filing of pleadings before all its benches, with lower courts due to follow soon.

Advocate S.R. Nargolkar, appearing for the court administration, informed a division bench of Chief Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice G.S. Kulkarni that a notification to the effect was issued on July 6 and the circular issued on Wednesday.

The development follows a PIL filed by a lawyer Ajinkya Udane, through his advocate P.R. Katneshwarkar, on the issue which has been settled now.

To Udane's query whether the A4-size paper rules will be applicable to lower courts in the state, the division bench directed Katneshwarkar to make a representation to the Registrar General of the High Court to issue suitable directions to the effect.

In his plea, Udane had said that the use of A4-size paper - compared with the 'foolscap size' currently in use - will help save huge quantities of paper, storage space and prevent large number of trees from being destroyed, thus making it an environment-friendly move.

He had pointed out that the Supreme Court and several other high courts in Karnataka, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Kerala, Tripura and Himachal Pradesh had already permitted the use of A4-size paper for plea filings.

The circular issued on Wednesday by Registrar General Mahendra Chandwani, amending the relevant rules, now allows "superior quality A4 size paper, not having less than 75 GSM with printing on both sides" instead of the "foolscap size paper".

The circular has been issued to all the high court benches, including the Principal Bench in Mumbai, and Nagpur, Aurangabad and Goa to use A4-size for all communications.