Allahabad High Court directs subordinate courts to ensure orders, office reports are written in legible handwriting

The Allahabad High Court has directed all subordinate courts in Uttar Pradesh to ensure that their orders, statements and office reports are written in legible handwriting..A communication to this effect was issued by the Registrar General of the High Court on January 29, Saturday."Hon'ble Court has been pleased to direct that the Peshkars/Readers are duty-bound to write down the order in a legible manner, failing which, it may be treated as a misconduct," the letter said..The Court noted that some of the orders, statements and officer reports in the subordinate courts are written in such bad handwriting that the same cannot be read properly, and some of them are even illegible.The Court, therefore, directed all the District and Sessions Judges of the subordinate courts to ensure that statements recorded, as well as office reports on order sheets, are done in clear and legible handwriting."If any order, statement or office report, is written in the order-sheet in a manner which cannot be read, the erring official shall be issued notice calling for his/her explanation whereupon departmental proceedings may be initiated against the concerned official, as per law," the letter stated..It also highlighted an order passed by the Lucknow Bench of the Allahabad High Court last year, on October 28, 2021, in Savita Yadav v. State Of Uttar Pradesh and Others, in which Justice Rajesh Singh Chauhan had taken strong objection to poorly written order sheet, due to which the Court was unable to read some of the orders.The single-judge had noted that if the orders are written in illegible handwriting, the erring official will be asked to furnish an explanation and may be punished departmentally, as per law..[Read Letter]