Institution’s sanctity must as live-stream provides access: CJI

THE BENCH WAS HEARING A PLEA SEEKING PROPER IMPLEMENTATION OF LIVE-STREAM OF PROCEEDINGS ACROSS HIGH COURTS

NEW DELHI: The sanctity of the institution must be maintained even as the Supreme Court has opened up to public access and transparency through livestreaming, Chief Justice of India (CJI) Dhananjaya Y Chandrachud said on Friday, as he underlined the importance of creating an in-house judicial infrastructure for broadcasting court proceedings.

“We have to ensure that the sanctity of the institution is also maintained. Sometimes the clips are released without context. Some 10-second clips are released out of the context and put out. We are looking into this too,” said justice Chandrachud.

The bench, which also included justice Hima Kohli, was hearing a plea seeking proper implementation of live-streaming of proceedings across high courts when it observed that the issue of misuse of videos of court proceedings has been taken note of, and that the court administration is thus musing over having its exclusive platform for live-streaming proceedings.

“When we have our own system then this problem will perhaps go away. Once the live streaming is over, clips will be available only for bonafide litigants or researchers etc. Once we have a system in place, we will try to address these concerns too,” the CJI said.

The court’s observations came when it was informed by senior advocate Indira Jaising about the clips being put out on social media without context with obnoxious motives to influence the process of administering justice.

“There needs to be copyright rules. There can be some monitoring of social media. As per original judgment, copyright is with the Supreme Court of India. But my juniors tell me that small clips of hearings are put on Instagram without context,” she complained.

Jaising also requested the CJI, who is the chairman of the Supreme Court e-committee, to adopt the Karnataka high court model, where the videoconference link is in the cause lists, and can be accessed from anywhere.

Accepting her suggestion, the bench told the registry to look into the feasibility of the proposition, and directed the case to be listed in the third week of January. During the proceedings, the CJI also said that the endeavour is to have a “judicial infrastructure for livestreaming within the courts” so that dependence on any other platform can be obviated.

“We shifted to videoconferencing during the pandemic because the other option was to completely shut the court. But now, we are trying to institutionalise the process. Now, we are looking at something more institutional so that it’s for posterity, and not for one month or one year,” said justice Chandrachud.