Figure 3: No Copyright Infringement Intended

Context:

• Same Sex Couples are seeking proceeding’s live streaming To recognise marriage.

Need for the live streaming:

• Space crunch in the courtroom made it difficult for the law students to attend the live session of court.
• Virtual hearing of the court has made it completely impossible for others to listen.
• In the earlier verdict in Swapnil Tripathi vs. Supreme Court of India, the court recommended that proceedings be broadcast live.
• The public has a right to know, about court proceedings in constitutional courts as well as trial and appellate courts.

Benefits of Live Streaming:

• Live streaming proceedings are part of the right to access justice under Article 21 of the constitution.
• Publishing court proceedings is an aspect of Article 129, which state that the Supreme Court is a court of record.
• Journalists, young lawyers, civil society activists and academics would all benefit from live streaming.
• Open courts help foster public confidence in the judiciary.

International Experience:

• Internationally, constitutional court proceedings are recorded in some form or the other.
• In Australia, proceedings are recorded and posted on the High Court’s website.
• Proceedings of the supreme courts of Brazil, Canada, England and Germany are broadcast live.
• The Supreme Court of the US does not permit video recording, but oral arguments are recorded, transcribed, and available publicly.
• In china, court proceedings are live streamed from trial courts up to the supreme people’s court of china.

Issues arising due to non-recording of court transaction process:

• Court hearings can be turning points in the life of a nation: ADM Jabalpur comes readily to mind.
• The court craft of legal stalwarts like HM Seervai, Ram Jethmalani, or Ashok Desai is already lost to future generations for want of recording.
• Documentation is essential to preserve our history.

Supreme Court steps to make Hearing available:

• The Court started providing vernacular translations of its judgments.
• Non-accredited journalists were permitted to live-tweet court proceedings.
• During the lockdown, journalists have been permitted to view virtual court proceedings in real time.

Government steps:

• Government is developing the modalities and rules to make it accessible to all.
• Supreme Court has said that Chief Justice of India will decide the administrative side of live streaming of cases.
• Recently, High court of Calcutta has permitted live streaming of a case.

Conclusion:

Openness and transparency reinforce the public’s faith in the judicial system. As Swapnil Tripathi noted, “sunlight is the best disinfectant” — even more important during a pandemic.