Madhya Pradesh High Court to hear plea to allow live-streaming, live reporting of court proceedings tomorrow

The Madhya Pradesh High Court is slated to hear tomorrow a plea to allow journalists/ media persons access to virtual court proceedings. .The petitioners have challenged the High Court's Video Conferencing Rules, 2020, as per which virtual court proceedings are generally restricted to lawyers..A Division Bench of Justices Sheel Nagu and GS Ahluwalia will be hearing the matter. .As interim relief, the petitioners have urged the Court to allow the livestreaming of all the matters relating to COVID-19 for the viewership of the general public. Senior Advocate Nidhesh Gupta will be appearing for the petitioners,.The petition filed through Advocate Manu Maheshwari has been moved by journalists, Nupur Thapliyal and Sparsh Upadhyay (Live Law Media Pvt. Ltd.), Areeb Uddin Ahmed (Bar & Bench) and Rahul Dubey (Dainik Bhaskar Prakashan Ltd.)..The following rules of the High Court of Madhya Pradesh Video Conferencing and Audio- Visual Electronic Linkage Rules, 2020 have been challenged:1. Rule 2(xv), defining Required Person’ to include witnesses, advocates, other persons in whose presence the court proceeding is required to be conducted or who are permitted by the Court to attend the proceedings.2. Rule 3(vi), which states, "Unless expressly permitted, no person or entity ... shall be permitted to record visual electronic linkage. In case of violation it will be punishable in accordance with law.”3. Rule 16 which provides that third parties would be allowed to attend the court proceedings only upon a specific order being issued by the Court..Effectively, these rules bar the entry of litigants, third parties and strangers (including journalists) into the virtual Courtroom, without the express permission of the Court..Media entitled to report on cases of public importance: Journalists move Madhya Pradesh High Court for live-streaming, permission to attend Court.Notably, the petitioners have made special mention of the need to provide the media and the public access to court proceedings that concern the COVID-19 crisis.."This is to ensure that the general public are in a position to watch the Court Proceedings live and be informed about the sincere and serious indulgence of this Hon’ble Court for tackling various problems being faced by the three wings of democracy i.e. Executive, Legislature and Judiciary, as also the public at large owing to the covid-19 pandemic", the petition stated..To buttress their submissions, the petitioners have relied on the Supreme Court's recent ruling in Chief Election Commission of India v. M.R. Vijayabhaskar & Ors, wherein the top Court had declined to bar the media from reporting live on court proceedings, including oral observations made in open Court.."Open Court, Open Justice:" Journalists move Allahabad High Court for access to court rooms, VC hearings to report High Court proceedings live.A similar petition was earlier filed before the Allahabad High Court to allow media persons to access and report court proceedings by Areeb Uddin Ahmed and Sparsh Upadhyay, through Advocate Shashwat Anand and Kumail Haider. This petition is likely to be heard on June 2 by Justice Pankaj Naqvi. .In this plea, the petitioners have also sought the appointment of a High Powered Committee headed by sitting or retired judges of the Allahabad High Court to work out how journalists may be given access to the Court proceedings and how live streaming or telecasting of Court proceedings can be facilitated..The petitioners had referred to the dedicated media room of the Supreme Court and the measures in place at the Gujarat High Court for the livestreaming of cases to pray that a similar set up be provided at the Allahabad High Court as well..The prayers before the Allahabad High Court also include making video conferencing links for court proceedings publicly available through the causelist.