'VC Facility Being Provided To All Litigants': Rajasthan HC Disposes PIL Plea Seeking Live Streaming Of Court Proceedings

The Rajasthan High Court (Jaipur Bench) recently disposed of a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) plea filed before it seeking live streaming of the court proceedings.

A bench of Chief Justice Manindra Mohan Shrivastava and Justice Bhuwan Goyal noted that since the Court was already providing a video conferencing facility to all the litigants, the PIL plea deserved no action.

"Taking into consideration that presently video conferencing facility is being provided to all the litigants and the petition seeks specific direction, we are not inclined to issue any direction at this stage," the order of the Division bench states.

It may be noted that the High Courts in Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Telangana, Orissa, Guwahati, Calcutta and certain other courts are already being live-streamed. Some High Courts allow the general public to access their hybrid court links. The Constitution Bench hearings in the Supreme Court are also being live-streamed.

In related news, the Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud in January this year remarked that High Courts must allow lawyers to access virtual hearings throughout the court proceedings, without restricting such access only to the particular item of the lawyer.

CJI made this remark while hearing a batch of petitions which seek directions to ensure that all High Courts and Tribunals allow virtual access. The petitions were filed in the wake of some High Courts discontinuing hybrid hearing facilities after the COVID-19 pandemic. Some of the petitions seek to declare virtual hearings as a fundamental right.

In November last year, a bench led by CJI had directed that all High Courts must provide virtual hearing facilities. Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal recently requested the Chief Justices of all High Courts to encourage the use of video conferencing in court proceedings.

Case title - Harshit Dudawat vs. Hon'ble High Court Of Rajasthan and others

Citation: 2024 LiveLaw (Raj) 76