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Constitutional matters heard by CJI can be live-streamed: Centre to Supreme Court
Attorney general of India KK Venugopal also suggested installation of TV screens inside the court canteen or some hall so that law students, interns and lawyers can watch the proceedings there.
People will soon be able to follow happenings in important cases with proceedings of certain Supreme Court cases likely to be live-streamed soon, with the attorney general of India KK Venugopal telling the apex court on Monday that live-streaming of constitutional matters heard by the Chief Justice of India could start on an experimental basis.
Appearing before a bench headed by the Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra, attorney general said: “We can start it on an experimental basis with the CJI’s court. Let it be restricted to constitutional cases. It should be tried for three months before the next step is taken. One needs to see the response.”
The bench, also comprising justices AM Khanwilkar and DY Chandrachud, was hearing a public interest litigation filed by senior advocate Indira Jaising.
Intervention applications have been filed by law interns urging the court to allow video-recording of court proceedings so that it can be given to litigants willing to pay for it.
The bench asked Venugopal to collate and compile suggestions and submit it to the court for the latter’s approval.
Venugopal also suggested installation of TV screens inside the court canteen or some hall so that law students, interns and lawyers can watch the proceedings there. This would also help in crowd management, he explained.
“Often lawyers not associated with the case attend court proceedings out of their interest in it. Once live-streaming starts then they need not come to the court but witness it on TV sets,” the AG said.
Justice DY Chandrachud agreed with Venugopal.
“We need to test technologies and procedural moralities. Anything done should be tested on technological stability,” Justice Chandrachud said.
However, Indira Jaising repeated her request that there should be strict guidelines to prevent misuse of live-streaming of the court proceedings , especially with respect to its commercial exploitation.
