SC reserves verdict on PIL for live telecast of court proceedings

Live streaming of court proceedings can soon become a reality, with the Supreme Court today 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. We are actually incorporating the concept of open courts. This would also help in ensuring that people don't overcrowd the courtroom," the top court said, adding that it would go a long way in academic debates on law.

Advocate Mathews J Nedumpara, one of the petitioners, said the live streaming should not be confined only to constitutional matters and there need not be any restriction of any kind. He said the people should know that SLPs are dismissed in 30 seconds in the top court.

The submission evoked a sharp reaction from the bench, which remarked "people should come to our houses to see that we spend half an hour each day to read these SLPs before coming to this court".

The apex court had earlier termed the proposal of live streaming of the court proceedings as the "need of the hour".

A petition, filed by a law student, had sought a direction for setting up live streaming rooms within the apex court premises and granting access to legal interns. The plea, filed by Swapnil Tripathi, a student of National Law University in Jodhpur, had sought requisite guidelines to facilitate witnessing of the proceedings for interns.

Senior advocate Indira Jaising had also filed a PIL for video-recording of proceedings in matters of national importance.

Besides Jaising and Tripathi, NGO Centre For Accountability and Systemic Change had also filed a PIL seeking a direction to the apex court registry and the Ministries of Law and Justice and Electronics and Information Technology to "video record the proceedings of all the courts and make them available to public and parties, subject to regulations".

Earlier, the Centre had said that video recording and live streaming of judicial proceedings can be undertaken on a trial basis in constitutional matters being heard by the Chief Justice of India's court.