Madhya Pradesh High Court Starts Live Streaming Of Court Proceedings Pursuant To Journalists' Plea For Live Reporting

The Madhya Pradesh High Court on Friday 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.

The petitioners had challenged the MP Video Conferencing & Audio-Visual Electronic Linkage Rules, 2020 to the extent they preclude 'third parties' from accessing virtual court proceedings and cause difficulty to media persons in real-time reporting on a public forum for citizens.

The development came after the High Court had directed it's IT Wing to give effect to the resolution of the E Committee for sharing link of live streaming of court proceedings in one way mode "without unnecessary delay".

A division bench comprising of Justice Prakash Shrivastava and Justice Virender Singh had disposed of the plea while ordering thus:

"Hence, the writ petitions are disposed of by taking note of the resolution of the E-Court Committee of the High Court dated 14.06.2021 in respect of sharing the link of live streaming of Court proceedings conducted via Video Conferencing through website of the High Court in one way mode and directing the I.T. Wing of the High Court to give effect to the said resolution without any unnecessary delay."

However, the Court clarified that the live streaming of the court proceedings will be done subject to restrictions as mentioned in the Swapnil Tripathi judgment and as may be imposed by the Rules which may be framed by the Court in this regard.

The Madhya Pradesh High Court administration had earlier submitted by way of an affidavit that they have decided that it will start providing the web links on its website so that the same could be accessed and court proceedings could be viewed which are currently being held via video conferencing mode.

The copy of the statement filed by the High Court Administration, and accessed by Live Law, further stated that it has approved to provide the weblinks and a resolution to this effect had been passed on June 15 pursuant to a meeting of the High Court's Computer and e-Committee, which was held on June 14.

The petitioners were represented by Senior Advocate Mr. Nidhesh Gupta assisted by Mr. Manu Maheshwari, Advocate.

The Court had earlier observed that no one can dispute the right to the media persons to report the Court's proceedings live, however, the same must be examined by the E-committee of the High Court.

Title: Nupur Thapliyal & Ors. v. High Court of Madhya Pradesh, Jabalpur & Anr.