Supreme Court E-Committee rejects proposal to record court proceedings

The government plan to record court proceedings seems to have hit a roadblock with the E-Committee of the Supreme Court rejecting the government proposal to record the court proceedings in subordinate courts..As per this report, the E-Committee rejected the proposal saying it was not acceptable at present. The proposal to record court proceedings was made by the government after an advisory council meeting of the Law Ministry held in August this year. The meeting was attended by the Law Minister, Law Commission Chairman, Justice AP Shah and representative of the Supreme Court’s E-Committee..To begin with, the government had sought to initiate recording of the proceedings in lower courts and subsequently bring the High Courts and the Supreme Court under its ambit. This was as a part of the bigger project – the E-court project. In the first phase of this project, all courts were computerised. Audio and video recording of court proceedings was part of the second phase..The Judge-Incharge of the E-Committee is Justice Madan B Lokur with the Chief Justice of India serving as its Patron-in-chief. It is interesting to note that the E-Committee of the Supreme Court has formulated its own Policy and Action Plan Document as part of Phase II of the E-Courts Project..A few weeks back, a Tamil Television channel, Thanthi TV had recorded the proceedings in the bail application of Jayalalithaa in the Supreme Court. This had create quite a furore with the All India Bar Association writing to the Registrar General of the Supreme Court demanding action against the channel..Read the Supreme Court Policy and Action Plan Document below.