Hijab Ban case: Digital divide narrowed with over 20k viewers watching Karnataka High Court live stream on YouTube

The live-streaming of the Hijab ban case before the Karnataka High Court on YouTube today grabbed many eyeballs, with viewership numbers spilling over 20,000 at a particular point in time..Appearing virtually before the Full Bench of Chief Justice Ritu Raj Awasthi and Justices Krishna S Dixit and JM Khazi, were Senior Advocates Sanjay Hegde, Devadatt Kamat, Sajan Poovayya, Advocate General Prabhuling Navadgi and others who weighed in on the various aspects of the ongoing controversy..The wide-ranging arguments touched upon the children’s education, dress codes in educational institutions, certain type of clothing being an essential part of a person's customary practices, faith and laws that govern the various issues related to the case.More importantly, the parties and the judges were in consensus on one aspect - schools should be opened and children should not be deprived of education especially when COVID-19 cases were on the decline. .The proceedings were live-streamed by Karnataka High Court’s YouTube channel, which has about 43,000 subscribers. Today's stream garnered over 5,000 likes with an average of 15,000 viewers..It is usually seen that proceedings involving high-profile names, or even debates on crucial law points, attract huge audience. Many such hearings that have taken place physically in courtrooms in the past witnessed a big turnout of interested listeners, including lawyers, legal interns, media persons and members of the general public..However, courtrooms have limited capacity to hold people. Though courtrooms in Indian High Courts are relatively bigger, they can only cater to an audience of a few hundreds. Owing to the access to proceedings through the internet, a much larger section of people can now easily stay abreast of legal developments..The live-streaming of the Hijab ban case is just one illustration of how a critical legal debate could be made more accessible to an audience living in any part of the country or, for that matter, the world..Not long ago, Justice DY Chandrachud of the Supreme Court of India had emphasised on the need to bridge the digital divide in the country for the benefit of two key stakeholders - common litigants and members of the Bar - in the system..“Technology, let us emphasise is to make life simpler and to make us more responsive to every stakeholder of our system. It is it is with that initiative in our mind that we take these baby steps which will go a long way in making justice speedy and more transparent,” he had underlined..And now, it seems that we are one step closer to that reality..I believe we have answers in technology: Justice DY Chandrachud on delay in disposal of criminal cases