CASE IN CALCUTTA HIGH COURT SET TO BECOME FIRST TO BE LIVE STREAMED
Court to decide if children of Parsi woman married to non-parsi can pray in fire temple
A case before the Calcutta high court, on whether children of a Parsi woman married to a non-parsi can pray in a Parsi fire temple, is set to become the first case in the country to be live streamed, lawyers said. The court ordered that the hearing be streamed live on Youtube.
KOLKATA/NEWDELHI: A case before the Calcutta high court, on whether children of a Parsi woman married to a non-parsi can pray in a Parsi fire temple is set to become the first case in the country to be live streamed, lawyers said.
The Calcutta high court on Wednesday ordered that the hearing in the case be streamed live on Youtube.
The division bench of justices Sanjib Banerjee and Kaushik Chandra passed the order, upholding an appeal by the Parsi Zoroasatrian Association of Kolkata which sought live steaming of the case.
While the Supreme Court, in 2018 passed a judgment enabling live streaming, it is yet to implement this.
The 2018 judgment of the apex court said that a specified category of cases, especially those of constitutional and national importance being argued for final hearing before the Constitution Bench can be live streamed as a pilot project.
In the Calcutta case, the issue before the court is whether children born to a Parsi woman and a non-parsi man can be allowed inside a fire temple.
The appeal for live streaming of the case was made before the division bench after a single bench rejected the prayer.
The single bench earlier directed Prochy N Mehta, a Kolkata resident, to submit an affidavit on a suit she filed complaining that the Zoroastrian Ajuman Atash Adaran Trust was not allowing her daughter’s children to enter the temple as their father is not a Parsi. The appeal mentioned that the grandchildren were initiated into the Zororastrian faith through the Navjote ceremony.
The Parsi Zoroasatrian Association sought to be made a party in the case.
The president of the association, Darayas Jamshed Bapooji, stated in his application that the association should be made a party to the hearing as “it represents the interests of a majority of members of Zoroastrian community who are beneficiaries of the trust.”
In court, the counsel representing the association submitted that the association should be made a party in the matter since the decision of the court will affect Parsis across the country.
Appearing for the association, advocate Firoz Eduljee on Wednesday said that the proceedings are extremely important for the nation’s Parsi community. He said the association prayed for live streaming of the proceedings so that all members of the community could witness it. The division bench also returned the case to the single bench. It will now be heard by Justice Debangshu Basak.
In its 2018 order, the Supreme Court said that prior consent of all the parties is necessary for live streaming and that if there is no unanimity between them, the concerned Court will be empowered to take the appropriate decision in the matter.
The judgment also mandated that must be a reasonable timedelay (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 be edited out.
Though the top court initiated the process of installing the infrastructure required for live streaming of its proceedings, no final decision has been taken yet regarding the implementation. Chief Justice of India SA Bobde is expected to take a call on this shortly.