The Supreme Court today issued notice in an application filed by Senior Advocate Indira Jaising seeking framing of guidelines to effectuate live streaming of proceedings.
Notice was issued by a Bench of Justices Indira Banerjee and Sanjeev Khanna.
Vide its judgment in Swapnil Tripathi v. Supreme Court of India, the Apex Court had held that matters of national importance being heard by it should be live streamed and video recorded. It was held that this would bring about more transparency in the system.
A three-judge bench comprising then Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices AM Khanwilkar and DY Chandrachud had also directed the framing of rules to regulate the live streaming.
While agreeing to implement the scheme as a pilot project, the Court had stated that the entire project would have to be executed in phases. The first phase of the project was supposed to commence after the formulation of rules. The Court had held,
"...we allow these writ petitions and interventionists' applications with the aforementioned observations and hope that the relevant rules will be formulated expeditiously and the first phase project executed in right earnest by all concerned."
The rules would have to reflect the recommendations made by Attorney General KK Venugopal, the Court had held. Among these recommendations was that initially, only cases of constitutional and national importance being argued for final hearing before the Constitution Bench be live streamed as a pilot project.
In light of the above, an application was recently filed by Jaising contending that appropriate directions be issued to the Supreme Court administration to frame rules so that hearings of significant cases can reach the masses first-hand.
It was claimed that impending hearings such as the Article 370 Abrogation and Sabarimla Reference, amidst many others, were of national importance and the citizens must be able to view the day-to-day proceedings instead of relying on the narrative.
The Bench, while issuing notice, directed that a copy of the application be supplied to the Secretary General of the Supreme Court.
[Read Order]
