On July 18, the Chief Justice of India (CJI), N. V. Ramana said live streaming of the Supreme Court (SC) might begin soon from some courtrooms and that work is being done to get a complete consensus on the issue.
Justice Ramana, at the virtual launch of Gujarat High Court’s live streaming proceedings expressed his “keenness” to start live proceedings from “some of the courts” of the SC. The Gujarat SC will go live from July 19 i.e. Monday.
The CJI added, “We are working out the logistics and working on the consensus of the full court. With the modern age of technologies, I have been given to understand that we can introduce this feature in a cost effective manner.”
He continued saying that the information from court gets “filtered” by agents of transmission and in the process, sometimes, a loss of transmission leads to misinterpretation of questions asked along with the observations of the bench “due to the absence of context.”
He said “vested interests” were eager to amplify such misinterpretations to “embarrass and discredit” the apex court.
The CJI stated, “It is this lack of direct access which gives space for misconceptions. The formalization of live streaming of court proceedings is the best cure for the aforesaid malady.”
In addition, he has said that being “sacrosanct aspect” of Article 19, live proceedings are crucial for the purpose of ensuring public confidence and faith in the Judiciary.
