Four years after the historic judgment, the Supreme Court on Tuesday started live-streaming court proceedings in important constitutional cases.
On September 27, 2018, the then Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra had delivered the landmark judgement on the live telecast or webcast of important proceedings in matters of constitutional importance, saying sunlight is the best disinfectant.
The Supreme Court in Swapnil Tripathi vs Supreme Court of India (2018) had ruled in favour of opening up the apex court through live-streaming.
However, several states started live streaming the proceedings of their High Courts in 2021. Currently, six high courts in the country- Gujarat, Orissa, Karnataka, Jharkhand, Patna, and Madhya Pradesh- have their own channels on YouTube to live stream their proceedings. Here is all you need to know:
Gujarat High Court
In what is called a historic moment, the Gujarat High Court became the first high court to launch live streaming of court proceedings in July 2021. The inauguration was done by Chief Justice of India NV Ramana who launched the live streaming of proceedings and also released the Gujarat High Court (Live Streaming of Court Proceedings) Rules, 2021 in the presence of Chief Justice of Gujarat High court Vikram Nath and other judges.
The Gujarat High Court started hearing the cases live on YouTube on an experimental basis from October 26, 2020. Since then, experimental live streaming had been going on.
Chief Justice of Gujarat High Court Vikram Nath said the HC judges unanimously decided to go in for live broadcast of the proceedings.
Karnataka High Court
The High Court of Karnataka became the second high court to start live court proceedings in June 2021. It conducted a trial of live proceedings of two public interest litigation (PIL) petitions.
The proceedings in the Court Hall-1 of Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Abhay Shreeniwas Oka and Justice Suraj Govindaraj were aired live on High Court’s Youtube Channel on a trial basis.
Madhya Pradesh High Court
The Madhya Pradesh High Court started live-streaming of court proceedings in June 2021, becoming the third such High Court in the country after Gujarat and Karnataka High Courts.
The live streaming comes after four journalists filed a petition after they failed to receive actual information on cases.
Orissa High Court
The Orissa High Court started live streaming its proceedings from August 2, 2021. However, it ruled that no content of live-streamed feed or videos of observations will be treated as an authorised or certified version of anything related to court proceedings. Only the orders or judgments by the benches issued by the court registry will be treated as authentic.
Patna High Court
The Patna High Court emerged as the fifth court in the country to live stream proceedings on YouTube in December 2021.
The idea was to bring transparency in the proceedings and promote the concept of open court in the country. The court of Justice Chakradhari Sharan Singh and Madhuresh Kumar telecast the proceedings live on YouTube, according to officials.
Jharkhand High Court
The Jharkhand High Court started live streaming its proceedings on Youtube on virtual dates of hearing from December 2021. Two rooms housing courts of Justices Aparesh Kumar Singh, KP Deo, Anubha Rawat Choudhary and Ananda Sen were hooked up to live stream hearings, links of which were made available on the court’s official website.
Bombay HC live streams on temporary basis
In April 2020, the Bombay High Court joined a live-streaming virtual courtroom on an experimental basis. During the streaming, Justice Gautum S Patel heard nine listed cases and one urgent matter during the public video-conferencing held through the Zoom application.
The court, however, stated that it will continue to live-stream hearings only till April 14, 2020.
Global Precedent
Some developed nations and Western countries allow live streaming of court proceedings, with necessary limitations in place.
In the US, through broadcast of proceedings is not allowed, however, audio recording and transcripts of oral arguments are allowed, according to reports.
Other countries including Canada, South Africa and United Kingdom also allow media to broadcast court proceedings Australia and Brazil also allow live streaming with limitations, which varies across courts.
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