No sharing, monetisation: Supreme Court curbs posting of court videos on social media [READ ORDER]

The Supreme Court has ordered that videos of courtroom proceedings cannot be monetised, or even hosted on social media and other platforms without prior permission.

A Bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V Mohana had passed the order on July 24 after hearing a writ petition concerning the live-streaming and recording of judicial proceedings.

"As an interim measure, it is directed that there shall be no extraction, dissemination, monetisation, posting, re-posting, uploading, transmitting, modification, storing, or hosting of the audio-video recording(s) of the judicial proceedings on social media or any other digital platforms without prior permission of the Secretary General of the Supreme Court of India or the Registrar Generals of the jurisdictional High Courts," the Court ordered.

The Court further directed the Union government to ensure implementation of the order.

"The Union of India is directed to put up a proposal with respect to the Nodal Ministries to give effect to the prayers made in the instant Writ Petition."

However, the Court clarified that its order will have no bearing on the reporting of court proceedings by recognised news outlets.

The Court directed its Secretary General and the Registrars General of all High Courts to upload the order on their respective websites for public information.

The High Courts have also been directed to submit status reports on the adoption of the model rules for live-streaming and recording of court proceedings circulated by the Supreme Court. The Court asked them to explain the impact and feasibility of continuous and uninterrupted live-streaming.

On an oral mentioning by Senior Advocate Vikas Singh, the Court impleaded all 25 High Courts of the country as respondents in the case. The Court also issued notice to several online platforms like LinkedIn, Meta, Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Google, X Corp and YouTube through their respective grievance officers.

The matter has been listed for hearing on July 31.

Along with Singh, Advocates Md Imran Ahmad, R Jude Rohit, Daksh Sachdeva, Deepeika Kalia, Khushi, Zeeshan Ahmad, Sudeep Chandra and Anil Kumar appeared for the petitioner.

[Read Order]