New Delhi, Aug 13 (PTI) The Supreme Court on Friday observed that large watermarks on orders of tribunals makes them unreadable and its e-committee will be contacting the tribunals so as to ensure that such logo are not used.

The top court said that in today's era, tribunals don't need watermarks to show authenticity as all the orders and judgements can be digitally signed.

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A bench of Justices DY Chandrachud and M R Shah made the observation while hearing a batch of appeals arising out of an order of National Green Tribunal (NGT).

Justice Chandrachud, after perusing the orders of the tribunal which uses watermarks in its order said, “these watermarks makes the orders unreadable especially for the visually challenged because it is not machine readable. It impacts the access to justice to the disabled”.

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Recounting his experience, Justice Chandrachud said that he had a law clerk last year, who was a Rhodes Scholar and blind and he used to face difficulty in reading these orders as these were not machine readable.

“Earlier, we had taken up the issue of watermarks with the high courts. Now we will take up the issue with the tribunals including NGT. Due to the watermarks, I am not able to read these orders comfortably. Navigating through these watermarks is a nightmare,” Justice Chandrachud said.

He said that tribunals do not come under the Supreme Court and an E-committee which is headed by him will take up the issue with the tribunals.

Senior advocate V Giri, who was also appearing in the matter, said that many high courts still use these watermarks in their orders and Madras and Telangana High Courts put it right in the middle of the order.

Justice Chandrachud said he agrees with the view and he is going to write to all the tribunals.

Earlier also the top court had voiced its concern and said that high courts and tribunals should abstain from the practice of using watermarks in orders and judgements to make it more readable.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)