Chhattisgarh High Court Decides To Prepare Plan To Live Stream Proceeding Of All Courts Under Its 'Supervisory Jurisdiction'
In a positive move towards opening up of the Courts for public viewing, the Chhattisgarh High Court has decided to prepare a plan for live streaming of the proceedings of all Courts under its supervisory jurisdiction as instructed by the e-committee, Supreme Court of India..This decision comes in the backdrop of the decision of various HIgh Courts who have expressed their willingness to...
In a positive move towards opening up of the Courts for public viewing, the Chhattisgarh High Court has decided to prepare a plan for live streaming of the proceedings of all Courts under its supervisory jurisdiction as instructed by the e-committee, Supreme Court of India..
This decision comes in the backdrop of the decision of various HIgh Courts who have expressed their willingness to Live stream their court hearings.
#ChhattisgarhHighCourt decides to prepare a plan to #LiveStream proceeding of all the courts falling under its 'Supervisory Jurisdiction' as instructed by the E-Committee of the #SupremeCourt of India. pic.twitter.com/6qmhzShLPO
— Live Law (@LiveLawIndia) June 27, 2021
The E-Committee of the Supreme Court this month published the Draft Rules on Live-Streaming and Recording of Court Proceedings in a bid to invite inputs and suggestions from stakeholders on or before 30th June, 2021.
The Chief Justice of India NV Ramana recently said that he was actively considering the proposal to live-stream the proceedings of the Supreme Court.
He made this statement at a virtual function organized to launch a mobile facility for journalists to access the VC hearings of the Supreme Court.
"I am also actively considering the proposal to telecast live the proceedings of the Supreme Court. However, before initiating concrete steps in this regard, I plan to seek general consensus among my colleagues in the Court", CJI Ramana said.
In April 2021, Justice DY Chandrachud (who was part of the bench that delivered the Swapnil Tripathi judgment) had said that the E-Committee of the Supreme Court was in the process of finalizing the rules for live-streaming. Justice Chandrachud heads the Supreme Court's E-Committee.
In a recent judgment, Justice Chandrachud had made an observation about the need for live-streaming.
"Unless live-streaming and archival of court proceedings sees the light of the day the absence of records of oral proceedings would continue to bedevil the system", the judgment authored by Justice Chandrachud in the case Election Commission of India vs MR Vijayabhaskar."
Position in other High Courts
The Madhya Pradesh High Court last week started live streaming of court proceedings for the bench led by its Chief Justice Mohammad Rafiq.
The development came after a plea was filed by four journalists Nupur Thapliyal (Legal Correspondent, Live Law), Sparsh Upadhyay (Special Legal Correspondent, Live Law), Areeb Uddin Ahmed (Legal Correspondent, Bar, and Bench), and Rahul Dubey (Legal Correspondent, Dainik Bhaskar) seeking media access to Court's Proceedings.
In an RTI response, the Madras High Court recently stated that it has not taken steps to implement the Supreme Court's directions regarding the live-streaming of court proceedings.
"Policy decision has not yet been taken by the High Court of Madras to provide public viewing of the Court Proceedings," stated the Madras High Court
After Gujarat High Court last year announced that it would commence live streaming of Court proceedings on YouTube, the Karnataka High Court on May 31 begin live-streaming proceedings on Youtube on a trial basis.
The Allahabad High Court is also hearing the plea by legal journalists who have moved the High Courts seeking permission for Live-streaming and Live-reporting.
Chhattisgarh High Court's notification
In pursuant to this decision to live stream all the courts under its jurisdiction, and for the preparation of details of required equipment, Manpower, Bandwidth and such other details as may be needed for live streaming of proceeding of all courts, a meeting of officers, technical persons posted at this High Court, and NIC officials with interested Vendors/ films is to be organized on July, 5 2021 at 11:00 AM.
Interested Vendors have been requested to submit their willingness for attending the aforesaid meeting through Video Conferencing.
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