SC directs courts to make judgement writing uniform to improve readability

It is desirable that all courts and tribunals, as a matter of practice, number paragraphs in all orders and judgements in seriatim, the bench said

The Supreme Court has directed all courts and tribunals to ensure that judgements and orders delivered by them are made paragraph-wise with serial numbers attached to each of them, 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.

Dealing with an appeal filed by B S Hari, the top court has on Thursday come across the judgement passed by the Punjab and Haryana High Court, which was not numbered paragraph-wise.

The top court directed 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 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.”