Ernakulam Government Law College to inaugurate facility on campus to watch live stream of Supreme Court, Kerala High Court proceedings

In what could possibly be a first for law schools across the country, the Ernakulam Government Law College (GLC) will soon provide a facility on its campus to watch the live-stream of court proceedings of the Supreme Court and the Kerala High Court..The facility will be inaugurated in the Legislative Assembly Hall building in the college campus on Saturday, March 18, by judge of the Kerala High Court, Justice Shaji P Chaly, who is himself an alumnus of the institution. On the same day, the college will also hold the convocation ceremony for the outgoing batches of both 3-year and 5-year LL.B (Bachelor of Law) degree courses. A host of judges of the Kerala High Court are expected to attend the event including Justices Anu Sivaraman, Mary Joseph, Devan Ramachandran, Gopinath P, MR Anitha, Murali Purushothaman, Viju Abraham, Sophy Thomas, Shoba Annamma Eapen..Established in 1874, the Ernakulam GLC which is also known as His Highness the Maharaja's Government Law College, is one of the oldest law colleges in India.The nearly 150 year old institution will now be a pathbreaker in bringing live court proceedings straight to its students while they are in its heritage campus. The same is being accomplished with the sponsorship of Musthafa & Almana, a global law and consulting firm that was co-founded by advocates Musthafa Zafeer OV and Almana Zafeer, both of whom are alumni of the GLC..Speaking to Bar and Bench, Associate Professor, Dr. Giri Shankar said that court proceedings would be displayed on a large screen in the foyer of the Assembly Hall. Most Constitution Bench hearings are already live-streamed by the Supreme Court on YouTube. Those hearings, as well as selected High Court cases, will be played live on the GLC campus. Since the Kerala High Court currently does not have a regular practice of live-streaming hearings but does function on hybrid mode, Shankar said that a student committee would be selecting the cases to be followed and would log in to the individual courts as necessary."It has to be a collaborative student led effort, not teacher-centric. Basically, you have to create interest and then only students will grab it. We won't have any seating arrangement there but let it be a floating crowd. People will slowly start to realise the importance of it and also of the social causes that these cases are usually about. It is an institutional push and there will be dialogue with people. The collective psyche of the educational institution matters," Dr. Shankar said..Speaking of the many advantages of the initiative, Dr. Shankar said that apart from bringing courtrooms to college campuses, the new project would also help to shorten the digital divide and perhaps re-engage students' interest in litigation, which is especially important since a lot of them turn to non-litigious fields after graduating..Dr. Shankar also pointed out that the idea of live streaming, which was first put forth in the Supreme Court's judgment in Swapnil Tripathi's case, had come a full circle."The wheel has turned full circle. It started with a law student (Swapnil Tripathi) raising the concern before the apex court and the court seized that opportunity and went ahead to put in place model rules of live streaming. Justice DY Chandrachud (as he then was) had specifically mentioned in the judgment how a spillover effect to law schools could be there especially when technology is being increasingly engaged not only in justice dispensation but also in legal education. The idea progressed from here and now it is coming to a law school," he said.