SC favours live-streaming of court proceedings

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court while hearing a petition filed by senior lawyer Indira Jaising and others, on allowing people to watch what happens in courtrooms said it is not opposed to the live streaming of proceedings. The Centre in its reply to the petition said if the top court takes a policy decision; it can facilitate the setting up of a separate channel for the Supreme Court, like the Lok Sabha or the Rajya Sabha TV, which live telecasts parliament sessions.

Chief Justice Deepak Misra said, "The concept of access to justice can be stretched through live streaming. Litigants are entitled to know how their cases are dealt with and will ensure transparency. Litigants will also know how his or her lawyer is presenting the case."

The Chief Justice, however, had a word of caution for sensitive rape trials or matrimonial cases.

The court also said live streaming of proceedings "will help students to learn."

In an earlier hearing, the Bench, also comprising Justices A.M. Khanwilkar and D.Y. Chandrachud, asked the Attorney General to assist the court on a plea to live-stream Constitution Bench proceedings in nationally important cases such as Aadhaar and decriminalisation of gay sex in the Supreme Court.

Senior advocate Indira Jaising filed the petition in her personal capacity.

Jaising had said courts around the world allowed their proceedings to be recorded, though they differed in their ways.

She had said that some judges in the constitutional court in India have historically been reluctant about the idea of recording court proceedings because it would "capture every sentence" in the banter between judges and lawyers which are merely a way to elicit responses and not a sign of how the judge would finally decide the case.

Jaising, however, said there were different methods to resolve such reluctance and illustrated means adopted by courts globally.

The Supreme Court, in a bid to usher in transparency, had earlier allowed the installation of CCTV video recording with audio in trial courts and tribunals.