Orissa High Court CJ Muralidhar Expresses Concern Over Misuse Of Court Live-Streaming Clips On YouTube; Bats For ‘Judicial Data Security Policy’

Chief Justice of the Orissa High Court Dr. Justice S. Muralidhar on Saturday expressed concern over misuse of video clips from the live-streaming of various High Courts which are being made available on YouTube and urged to introduce a comprehensive ‘Judicial Data Security Policy’ to secure judicial data.

He was addressing a galaxy of Judges from various High Courts and District Judges of Odisha at the Odisha Judicial Academy, Cuttack in the inauguration ceremony of a two-day National Conference on Digitization, Paperless Courts and e-Initiatives. The event was attended by the Chief Justice of India Dr. Justice DY Chandrachud and Justice Rajesh Bindal, Judge, Supreme Court of India.

Justice Muralidhar informed the gathering that the last conference of the IT Committee was held in Lucknow more than six years back. He highlighted the changes that came in between the two conferences due to a number of ICT initiatives, such as live-streaming of Courts, e-filing, paperless Courts, digitization of Court records which are no longer new initiatives.

Judicial Data Security Policy

He flagged a few issues that the participants of the conference must keep in mind, viz. access to justice, data integrity and security.

“As we wait a comprehensive data protection law to be enacted, we must put our heads together, of course with the help of experts, to frame a comprehensive ‘Judicial Data Security Policy’, particularly since we are generating a vast amount of data on a daily or may be even on an hourly basis and particularly since much of these data concern the litigants in our Courts and their most private and confidential details of their lives.”

Misuse of Court’s Video Clips

He said, it is important while maintaining integrity and security of the data, the Courts decide who can use it and how.

“For instance, we have live-streaming of several High Courts in the country and many of us have noticed in YouTube, clips of those live-streaming are being used by various actors. Many of them [are] private players and with captions like ‘Angry Judge’, ‘Wonderful Argument’ and so on. We must learn to control the use of such clips by the users of internet.”

Judiciary To Be Self-Reliant

He also highlighted that many of the Judges still continue to use e-mail service providers like Google Mail (Gmail), which is a private service provider. He said, these are matters of concern that Judges need to address.

He underlined that Geoffrey Hinton, a former Google computer scientist, has cautioned about the uses of Artificial Intelligence (AI). He said, though Judges use AI for translation of judgments into regional languages, but they must robustly consult with experts before using it for any other judicial purposes.

He further stressed on Judiciary being self-reliant as far as deployment of ICT in judicial works is concerned. He expressed concerns that the Judiciary, as an institution, is heavily dependent on external agencies for procuring hardware and software. He suggested to take necessary steps to make the Judiciary self-reliant in this area.

Assistance Of Govt. In E-Initiatives

He also expressed gratitude to the Union Government for being liberal in extending financial support to the phase III of the e-Courts project. He expected that the notable transformations will be visible in the judicial e-infrastructure in the near future.

He also informed that the two-day conference will highlight several aspects of completing these herculean tasks. The conference will also focus on experiences of the Judges of various High Courts in rolling out e-initiatives, achievements, best-practices, plans and the challenges that they face in implementing the initiatives.

“It is by now evident that the support of State Governments to the various High Courts in e-initiatives is not consistent across the board. I first acknowledge [that] the Government of Odisha has been extremely supportive of the e-initiatives for our High Court,” he added.

Need For Continuous Efforts

He pointed out that it has been 18 years since the first ‘National Action Plan’ was rolled-out by the e-committee.

“The IT Committees in various High Courts as well as the e-committee in the Supreme Court of India have been fortunate in the past two decades to have Judges with exceptional competence and vision, whose unstinting efforts have progressed this far. We need to build on those efforts and then to pass on the baton to the next generation of Judges.”

Lastly, he added to Gandhiji’s talisman and said,

“We would do well in the context of ICT initiatives if we align them with our core constitutional values and beliefs including the right to privacy so well-articulated by the Supreme Court of India in Puttaswamy judgment.”