Record drama of courts

High-voltage drama in Supreme Court requires urgent-most system of audio-recording of court proceedings. Even though Chief Justice of India declined, and rightly so, to pass gag-order on media for not reporting unbelievable shocking court-proceedings of five-member bench of the Apex Court, yet no media-group has taken courage to report word-by-word proceedings of the high-voltage proceedings. Members of public which are the mute but most essential part of justice-delivery-system have such right to know

real unedited happenings inside the court-rooms. It may be recalled that Supreme Court had to issue contempt-notices to two English dailies Pioneer and Indian Express allegedly for their having misreported court-proceedings. Such situations would never occur again if idea of recording court-proceedings is put into practice. In case ideal video-recordings of court proceedings may not be immediately feasible, system of audio-proceedings should be implemented without any further delay especially when court-rooms in Supreme Court and many High Courts are already equipped with microphones. Copies of these audio-tapes may also be supplied to recognised media-subscribers on payment after the court-proceedings are over for the day, to avoid any chance of misreporting. Such audio-recordings will also provide a justified opportunity to defend media-persons in case they are slapped with charges of misreporting. System will also be advantageous in many other ways including also accountability in judicial system. It may be recalled that some members from the bar had written to Prime Minister in January 2015 for live telecast of court-proceedings on website. A study needs to be made on feasibility-aspect of the suggestion and to find if such a system exists in any other country. — Madhu Agrawal