New Delhi: Live streaming of court proceedings can soon become a reality, with the Supreme Court on Friday saying it wanted to implement the concept of ‘open court’ to decongest the courtrooms. New Delhi: Live streaming of court proceedings can soon become a reality, with the Supreme Court on Friday saying it wanted to implement the concept of ‘open court’ to decongest the courtrooms. A bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud reserved its verdict on the issue after Attorney General K K Venugopal submitted suggestions on the guidelines for live streaming of court proceedings. “We don’t perceive any difficulty in live streaming. Let us first start with it and see how it goes. We are just on a pilot project. We are not ruling out anything and will improve with time. We cannot have everything together,” the bench observed. The Attorney General told the court that live streaming can be introduced as a pilot project in the Chief Justice of India’s court in matters of constitutional importance. The success of this project will determine whether live streaming should be introduced in other courts in the apex court and in courts across the country, he said. Venugopal said that live streaming should be delayed by 70 seconds to allow the Judges to mute the sound when a lawyer misbehaves or if matter is sensitive, like dealing with individual privacy or national security. “Live streaming of court proceedings should be introduced as a pilot project in Court no 1 (CJI’s court) and only in constitution bench references. The success of this project will determine whether or not live streaming should be introduced in all courts in the Supreme Court and in the courts pan-India. “To ensure that all persons including litigants, journalists, interns, visitors and lawyers are able to view the live streaming of the proceedings, a media room should be designated in the premises of the court with necessary infrastructure facilities. This will also ensure that courts are decongested. Provisions may also be made available for the benefit of differently-abled persons,” Venugopal said. During the hearing, advocate Virag Gupta, appearing for NGO ‘Centre For Accountability and Systemic Change’, suggested that instead of forming a TV Channel or live streaming, the proceedings should be video recorded and hosted on the official website of the apex court. The lawyer said there was a risk of manufacturing of fake news on the basis of clips of the proceedings and observations made by the judges, especially during hearing of sensitive matters like Ayodhya or Aadhaar. The apex court, however, rejected the contention and said it cannot refuse to accept a technological advancement on the apprehension of a danger associated with it and told the AG that “the problem you are referring to is worse now. There is live tweeting of our comments and a dozen websites give details of judges’ observations”. “Anybody can access the courtroom. So what is the big deal in live streaming of court proceedings. (PTI)
