The Supreme Court on Friday observed that large watermarks on orders of tribunals made them unreadable and its e-committee would be contacting the tribunals to ensure that such logos were not used.

The top court said in today’s era, tribunals didn’t need watermarks to show authenticity as all the orders and judgments could be digitally signed.

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

Justice Chandrachud, after perusing the orders of the tribunal that uses watermarks, said: “These watermarks make the orders unreadable especially for the visually challenged because it is not machine-readable. It impacts the access to justice to the disabled.”

Recounting his experience, Justice Chandrachud said he had a law clerk last year who was a Rhodes scholar and blind and he used to face difficulty in reading these orders.

“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 tribunals did not come under the Supreme Court and an e-committee headed by him would take up the issue with the tribunals.