Ahmedabad ITAT’s trailblazing go-green initiative aims at 'paperless' court

Ahmedabad ITAT initiates series of steps on an experimental basis with immediate effect, as part of its go-green initiative, invites suggestions and feedback from stakeholders; Directs that no hard copies of the orders will be issued for the DRs, CIT(A)s and the DRPs henceforth, further directs that registry to not accept any paper book containing copies of judicial precedents reported in recognized journals and databases; Similarly directs that registry to not accept any paper-books containing any of the documents, copies of which are statutorily required to be filed anyway along-with the appeal itself, e.g. assessment order, CIT(A)’s order, DRP order, form 35, form 35A, form 36, grounds of appeal etc.; Ahmedabad ITAT also encourages use of paper on both the sides in every document and paper-book filed, to the extent possible and practicable to do so, further keeps a cap of 12.5 for font size and 1.5 lines for internal spacing; Requires that soft copy of the cause lists / constitution of benches to be placed on ITAT’s official website and twitter account, in addition to hard copies which shall be used only for limited internal communications; States that a guidance note regarding the operations of the paperless court and use of soft copies of the paperbooks, will be issued by December 15th, 2017