Karnataka High Court Directs Govt To Immediately Notify 'Live Streaming & Recording Of Court Proceedings Rules'

A division bench of Chief Justice Ritu Raj Awasthi and Justice Sachin Shankar Magadum said,

"The Karnataka State government has approved the Live streaming and recording of court proceedings rules without any amendments and now they are to be notified, from the date informed by the High Court. The Registrar General of this court is directed to notify the date for coming into force of these rules."

It added that,

"The government shall immediately notify these rules and publish in the official gazette and the same shall be done within one week from today."

On September 17, the full court had approved the rules framed regarding live streaming of court proceedings and it was forwarded to the state government for approval.

It was in 2018 that the Supreme Court approved in principle the concept of live-streaming of important court hearings. However, it is yet to be implemented.

Gujarat High Court became the first court to begin live-streaming proceedings through YouTube. As of date, the Madhya Pradesh High Court has also commenced live streaming its proceedings. The Orissa High Court live streams proceedings of the Court of Chief Justice.

Recently, proceedings in some cases were live-streamed from the court of the Chief Justice of Karnataka High Court on a trial basis.

The decision to telecast court proceedings comes in the backdrop of the Supreme Court's verdict in Swapnil Tripathi v. Supreme Court of India, permitting live streaming of court hearings. "Sunlight is the best disinfectant", the Top Court had remarked therein.

Read Draft Supreme Court Live Streaming Rules here.

The court issued the direction while hearing a petition filed by Advocate Dilraj Rohit Sequeira. The matter will be next heard after two weeks.

Case Title: Dilraj Rohit Sequeira v. Union Of India

Case No: 50892/2019