Gujarat High Court calls for periodically deleting online court hearing videos

A Division Bench of the Gujarat High Court on Tuesday urged the Chief Justice of the High Court to issue directions for the removal videos of livestreamed court hearings from YouTube after a specific period..A Bench of Justices AS Supehia and Gita Gopi observed that the final discretion to do so rests with Chief Justice Sunita Agarwal."We are of the opinion that the videos of the Court proceedings are required to be removed from the YouTube after a specific period. However, we leave it on the discretion of Hon’ble the Chief Justice. Registry is directed to apprise Hon’ble the Chief Justice in this regard," the Court said..The Court made the observation while taking exception to advocate Deepak Khosla and his client, Gujarat Operational Creditors Association, for using transcripts of live-streamed court hearings as evidence in violation of the rules set in this regard by the High Court.The Bench found that advocate Khosla had placed reliance on unauthorised transcripts of the Court's livestream recordings from YouTube.This violated the Gujarat High Court (Live Streaming of Court Proceedings) Rules, 2021, the Court observed."The Rules caution any party to use the court proceedings as an evidence, and in case, if it is done, (the rules) direct initiation of the proceedings under the Contempt of Courts Act, 1971 ...reliance placed on the unauthorized transcripts by learned advocate Mr.Khosla needs to be deprecated and highly condemned, which we do," the Court added..The Bench was hearing an application filed by the Gujarat Operational Creditors Association, which had cast aspersions on at least three High Court judges apart from accusing senior lawyers of having committed contempt of court.The Association and its counsel, Advocate Khosla, had objected to the repeated extension of an interim stay order.The interim order was passed on August 8 last year and had been periodically extended even after an application was filed to vacate the said interim order.Khosla took objection to this, arguing that it amounted to a violation of Supreme Court orders. An application was, therefore, filed seeking to initiate contempt of court proceedings against senior lawyers who had represented Arcelor Mittal Nippon Steel India and who had sought extensions of the interim order..After two single judges - Justices Sangeeta Vishen and Vaibhavi D. Nanavati - recused from hearing the case, Khosla (on behalf of his client) also accused them of judicial indiscipline. Allegations were made against the next judge who dealt with the matter as well, namely Justice Nikhil S Kariel.While arguing this matter, Khosla also relied on transcripts of the Court's live-streamed recordings from YouTube. As part of the application, a 259-page audio transcript was presented before the Court.The High Court, however, was not impressed and dismissed the application while imposing ₹2 lakhs as costs on Khosla's client for wasting the Court's time. It added that the contempt application was an "epitome of frivolity."Further, it also cautioned against using videos of live-streamed court hearings as evidence and suggested that the same be removed from YouTube after a certain period of time..[Read Judgment]