A paper trail

It is paper.

“Look at the sheet on top — it is green in colour. That means the lawyer is late,” says Rahul Bhardwaj,pointing to a bundle of freshly-tagged files lying next to him. Bhardwaj,who hails from Agra,has been haunting these corridors for four years now,handling copies of petitions on its way to the apex court.

People like Bhardwaj — no one knows exactly how many are there — make copies of petitions filed by lawyers,and prepare files for submission before the Supreme Court. At a time when the Supreme Court looks to be steering the country,some of the papers that would make for historic judgments go through the hands of these men.

While most of the men work independently,some are employed by lawyers’ clerks to offload their work. “My boss is a munshi,and he pays me a monthly salary of Rs 4,500. There are three of us,and our primary job is to prepare files for the munshi’s lawyer,” he says.

There are three types of files — the tag,the paper-book and the ‘special’. There are hierarchies. “Every time lawyers file Special Leave Petitions,they need one tag and three paper books,” says Bhardwaj.

The tag — Bhardwaj charges Rs 5 for each — is simply a bunch of papers strung together using a white tag. Tags are usually used as lawyers’ personal copies. Paper books,which cost Rs 10 per copy,are submitted to the court,one for each judge who hears the petition. The ‘special’ files are a status symbol. “Senior advocates ask for the special files. I charge Rs 15 per copy. There isn’t a lot of difference between paper books and special files,though,” says Bhardwaj.

If you trace the corridor’s paper trail,there is a good chance you will reach Bhola Dutt and his frequently-on-strike Canon NP6085 photocopier. “There are five of us in the building,” Dutt says,before bending to open one of the machine’s many cabinets to sort out a paper jam.

Dutt has been at the Supreme Court for 12 years. He was inside the court building when he began,and charged 50 paise per page he copied. His tribe has since moved to the chambers,and now he charges 75 paise per copy. Business has flourished,and now Dutt employs two others who prepares files that he copies without a break.

The paper trail further goes back to computers,present in almost every office in the building.

There are also computer operators in corridors,who charge Rs 15 for every page they type.

There is one even next to Dutt’s machine,where lawyers wait impatiently as their drafts are typed out. In computers lie the irony. Computers,those stenographer-killers,have been shown their rightful place; they have been told that they are merely typewriters with screens and printers. Prints are taken,and copied.