'It Is On Experimental Basis Today; We'll See How It Works' : Karnataka HC CJ On Trial Run Of Live Streaming Of Hearing

At 3.06 pm, when the hearing began, a total of 143 people were viewing it and as the hearing progressed the viewers kept on increasing. Advocate Murthy D Naik appearing for petitioner BAITHKOL BANDHARU NIRASHRITHARA YANRIKRUT DHONI MEENUGARARA SAHAKARA SANGHA NIYAMITHA continued his submissions, in a matter pertaining to Development of II stage expansion of Commercial Karwar Port Activity.

After the Gujarat High Court last year had announced that it would commence live streaming of Court proceedings on YouTube, the Karnataka High Court yesterday began live-streaming proceedings on Youtube on a trial basis.

Before the proceedings were live-streamed at 2.40 pm, the court had called upon the counsels appearing in the petition WP WP 1322/2020 (PIL) Connected with WP 2336/2020 seeking their consent on appearing in the proceedings which was going to be live-streamed.

Advocate Naik who made the submission later told Live Law "It's a welcome move with a lot of transparency, in addition to the existing Video Conferencing facility, since March 2020., implemented successfully by the high court. I had the good fortune of making my submissions when the same was live-streamed for the first time."

Similarly, Additional Advocate General Dhyan Chinnappa who appeared for the state government and was part of the hearing said "I definitely believe that live streaming will only add to transparency in court proceedings. The Karnataka High Court has truly ensured that open court proceedings in the digital era have become a reality. However, one must consider that this may, in the long run, result in some hesitation on the part of lawyers in making concessions on facts or law (the worry being that they may be berated later) or in Courtroom humour and banter which may become a permanent record - sometimes avoidable."

As the hearing came to end at 4.06 pm, there were 713 viewers to the proceedings and it had got around 261 likes and 8 dislikes.

In its order the court headed by Chief Justice Oka recorded "Further submissions of the counsel for petitioner are heard. With the consent of the parties, live streaming is done today on an experimental basis. Live streaming will continue tomorrow."