India To Get Virtual Access To Courtroom Proceedings: Read SC Directions On Live Streaming

Providing “virtual access to courtroom proceedings as they unfold”, the Supreme Court on Wednesday opened its doors for live streaming of cases of constitutional and national importance, barring those involving juveniles, cases of sexual assault, matrimonial issues, being argued for final hearing before the Constitution Bench.The court also ordered that to give full effect to the process of live-streaming, advocates addressing the Bench, and judges addressing the Bar, must use microphones while addressing the court.The live streaming would be with prior consent of all parties concerned and if there is no unanimity, the court concerned will take the decision which shall not be open to appeal.The court will have copyright over the broadcasted content.There will also be reasonable time gap between the proceedings and streaming to ensure that anything which ought not be made public can be edited.The judgment was passed by a bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra, Justice AM Khanwilkar and Justice DY Chandrachud. The judgment has two opinions—one by Justice Misra and Khanwilkar, penned by the latter, and the other penned by Justice Chandrachud.In allowing live streaming of cases, Justice Chandrachud said, “Sunlight is the best disinfectant. Live-streaming as an extension of the principle of open courts will ensure that the interface between a court hearing with virtual reality will result in the dissemination of information in the widest possible sense, imparting transparency and accountability to the judicial process.”He also suggested that in future, in addition to live streaming of courtroom proceedings, oath ceremonies of the judges of the Supreme Court and speeches delivered by retiring judges and other judges in the farewell ceremony of the respective Supreme Court judges and addresses delivered in judicial conferences or Full Court References or any event organized by the Supreme Court or by advocate associations affiliated to the Supreme Court or any other events may also be streamed live.In its judgment, the bench of CJI and Justice Khanwilkar said, “The project of live streaming of the court proceedings of the Supreme Court on the “internet” and/or on radio and TV through live audio-visual broadcasting/telecasting universally by an official agency, such as Doordarshan, having exclusive telecasting rights and/or official website/mobile application of the Court, must be implemented in a progressive, structured and phased manner, with certain safeguards to ensure that the purpose of live streaming of proceedings is achieved holistically and that it does not interfere with the administration of justice or the dignity and majesty of the Court hearing the matter and/or impinge upon any rights of the litigants or witnesses.”The bench reiterated that the Supreme Court Rules, 2013 will have to be suitably amended to provide for the regulatory framework for holistic live streaming.The basic issues which the bench said should be kept in mind are: (A) To begin with, only a specified category of cases or cases of constitutional and national importance being argued for final hearing before the Constitution Bench be live streamed as a pilot project. For that, permission of the concerned Court will have to be sought in writing, in advance, in conformity with the prescribed procedure.(B) Prior consent of all the parties to the concerned proceedings must be insisted upon and if there is no unanimity between them, the concerned Court can take the appropriate decision in the matter for live streaming of the court proceedings of that case, after having due regard to the relevancy of the objections raised by the concerned party. The discretion exercised by the Court shall be treated as final. It must be non-justiciable and non-appealable.(C) The concerned court would retain its power to revoke the permission at any stage of the proceedings suo motu or on an application filed by any party to the proceeding or otherwise, in that regard, if the situation so warrants, keeping in mind that the cause of administration of justice should not suffer in any manner.(D) The discretion of the Court to grant or refuse to grant such permission will be, inter alia, guided by the following considerations: Unanimous consent of the parties involved, Even after the parties give unanimous consent the Court will consider the sensitivity of the subject matter before granting such permission, but not limited to case which may arouse passion or social unrest amongst section of the public, Any other reason considered necessary or appropriate in the larger interest of administration of justice, including as to whether such broadcast will affect the dignity of the court itself or interfere with/prejudice the rights of the parties to a fair trial,(E) There must be a reasonable time-delay (say ten minutes) between the live court proceedings and the broadcast, in order to ensure that any information which ought not to be shown, as directed by the Court, can ...

India To Get Virtual Access To Courtroom Proceedings: Read SC Directions On Live Streaming

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