Live Streaming | Dependency On Third-Party Apps Inevitable Right Now, Working To Create A Self-Reliant Ecosystem, Says Supreme Court Registry
The Supreme Court Registry has said that though it is working towards achieving a self-reliant live streaming platform, however, at present it is constrained to rely on third-party apps due to technical and infrastructure constraints. In response to a PIL filed by former RSS ideologue KN Govindacharya for live streaming court proceedings, Registrar of SC's Computer Cell...
The Supreme Court Registry has said that though it is working towards achieving a self-reliant live streaming platform, however, at present it is constrained to rely on third-party apps due to technical and infrastructure constraints.
In response to a PIL filed by former RSS ideologue KN Govindacharya for live streaming court proceedings, Registrar of SC's Computer Cell HS Jaggi said,
"Not only the Registry, but NIC as well, at present, does not have the sufficient technical and infrastructure wherewithal to host the live streaming completely on its own without third-party applications and solutions. The dependency on third-party applications to offer the live streaming services to a larger audience, therefore, is inevitable."
The Registry added that this measure is only temporary and that it is constantly working to make the entire live streaming a self-contained ecosystem.
Live-Streaming : Trying To Have A National Infrastructure Which HCs Can Also Use, Says Supreme Court
Four years ago, on September 26, 2018, the Supreme Court in the Swapnil Tripathi case, had accepted in principle the idea of live-streaming cases of public importance.
In September this year, it decided to start livestream Constitution Bench proceedings. Accordingly, the Registry through its Computer Cell worked in close coordination with the National Informatics Centre (NIC), Video Conferencing (VC) Division to proceed with live streaming on NIC's YouTube channel.
As of now, SC relies upon its VC platform, CISCO WebEx coupled with latest VC hardware and infrastructure to live stream proceedings. Additionally, the VC content is livestreamed to NIC which further encodes the URL and publishes it through YouTube, NIC Webcast portal. Lastly, the links generated are also shared on the SCI website for live streaming.
Use of third-party application is subject to their terms and conditions. "These third-party applications are essentially open platforms, which offer their services on certain standard terms and conditions, which are applicable to all its users," the affidavit stated.
Case Title: KN Govindacharya v. Secretary General, Supreme Court