"HC Live Proceedings Being Used For Entertainment Purposes With Oblique Motive": GHAA Writes To CJ Of Gujarat High Court

The 'Gujarat High Court Advocates Association' (GHAA) President has written to the Chief Justice of the Gujarat High Court, Aravind Kumar regarding the 'flagrant' and 'widespread' violation of the provisions of the Gujarat High Court (Live Streaming of Court Proceedings) Rules, 2021.

GHAA President Asim Pandya has written to the Chief Justice to bring to his notice that live streaming of the High Court proceedings is being used by various persons on Youtube, Instagram, and Facebook for commercial and entertainment purposes and with oblique motives.

The letter states that Association has been receiving 4 – 5 complaints on a daily basis where the clippings of HC's live streaming have been uploaded on Youtube and other video streaming platforms such as Instagram and Facebook and in most of the cases, the clippings have been taken out of context and uploaded with highly inappropriate 'tag line' with '#' (Hash Tags).

Advocate Pandya has further pointed to a very sorry trend where the videos of court proceedings are copied, edited, and used by various channels on social media channels such as Youtube, Facebook, Instagram, etc.

The letter also refers to a few platforms which sensationalize live streaming of proceedings such as Beligina Kirana (A news channel on Youtube), Brut India (A social media handle on Instagram and Facebook), and other social media platforms alleging that may be involved in unauthorized copying, editing, uploading and circulating videos of court proceedings on its platform.

Further, the letter refers to Rule 4 of the HC Live Streaming Rules, which mandates that there are certain cases that should not be live-streamed such as: Cases involving matrimonial disputes, Cases of offences of sexual assault and Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, 2012, Cases involving children and juveniles, Cases of Habeas Corpus petitions and Cases involving children and juveniles; they are being live-streamed and unauthorizedly used by various persons for various reasons.

"The live streaming of such cases not only violates the Livestreaming Rules, 2021 but also violates fundamental rights including Right to Privacy and Right to be forgotten (which are not recognized as integral part of Right to life under Article 21) of various stakeholders such as Lawyer, Litigants, Relatives of Litigants etc," the letter adds.

Another grievance that has been highlighted in the letter is that various lawyers have complained to the GHAA that unauthorized clippings of the live-streaming of cases involving them have harmed their reputation.

Referring to the right to be forgotten, the GHAA's president has stated that one stray incident in a court proceeding of an advocate being taken to task by court or any unsavory exchange of dialogue between an advocate and a judge or a comment made by a judge in a lighter sense against an advocate cannot be repeatedly allowed to be circulated in any form by visual representation out of context.

"This seriously violates the right to be forgotten," the letter stresses.

Against this backdrop, the letter requests the Chief Justice to take suo motu cognizance in this matter at the earliest and issue contempt notices to all concerned brazenly violating the Livestreaming Rules.

It has further been suggested in the letter that the live-streaming of cases may contain the disclaimer regarding the applicability of the Live-Streaming Rules, 2021 so that public at large should know limitations and restrictions in making, circulating, and uploading the clippings of the live-streamed cases.

Lastly, it has been requested that CJ passes necessary directions to all concerned to follow Rule 4 of the Rules, 2021 in its true spirit and senses and not to live-stream cases which are enlisted as exceptions.