Orissa High Court
Buni @ Tunirani Pradhan & Anr vs State Of Odisha on 19 March, 2021
CORAM: HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE S.K.PANIGRAHI
BLAPL NO.6015 of 2020
Buni @ Tunirani Pradhan & Anr. .....Petitioners
Versus
State of Odisha ....Opp. Party
07 19.03.2021 Heard Mrs. Rajalaxmi Biswal, learned counsel
for the petitioner, learned counsel for the State and Mr.
D.K. Misra, learned counsel for the informant.
Learned counsel for the petitioner placed the
copy of the charge sheet before this Court which is
neither legible in open eye nor visible properly because of
very tiny font size of the text prepared by the Investigating
Officer. This is a regular phenomenon encountered by the
prosecution, defence and the Court. Such smallest font
size causes wastage of considerable time and energy of
the Court while reading the same.
In fact, presenting information in a perceptually
degraded fashion is affront to the reader of the text. The
font so choosen should have higher readability quotient.
Hence, the need for an appropriate font size and line
spacing is very important to overcome the problem of
disfluency in reading. Small font and irregular line
spacing or slightly blurry letters or bad handwriting act
as a cue to diffluent reading and causes retarded
information processing in the mind. Changing the font
size, line spacing etc. costs almost nothing but it will have
a great effect on readability quotient of the text we read.
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Learned counsel for the State is directed to
bring this matter before the Director General of
Police, Odisha and he shall be informed about the said
issue of better and legible font size including legible hand
writing while preparing the F.I.R., charge sheet, other
reports, etc. and the difficulties encountered by the
stakeholders.
This is a very serious issue and the Director
General of Police, Odisha should inform to all the Police
Officers of all Police Stations to follow a uniform pattern
of font size of 12 in Times New Roman while preparing the
charge sheet, F.I.R. or any reports with line spacing of 1.5
which shall ensure a better visibility and readability. The
Director General of Police shall file an affidavit before this
Court stating that he has issued instructions to all the
police officers of the State regarding the use of such
uniform font size and line spacing while preparing the
F.I.R. or Final Form or any other reports. The
handwritten documents also need to be prepared with
better and legible hand writing as far as possible. The
said affidavit shall be filed within three weeks from today.
List this matter on 12.04.2021 for filing of
affidavit.
Since it is submitted by learned counsel for the
petitioner that the fate of this bail application in respect
of the present petitioner, who is similarly placed with the
petitioner, depends upon the result of BLAPL No.5753 of
2020 which has been listed for delivery of judgment on
23.03.2021, list this matter on 24.03.2021.
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A free copy of this order be given to
the learned counsel for the State for information
and necessary compliance.
.............................
S. K. Panigrahi, J.
