Transcripts Of Court Proceedings Will Be Made Available In Regional Languages : CJI DY Chandrachud

CJI DY Chandrachud orally remarked today that the Supreme Court had been, on an administrative side, working towards making transcripts of court proceedings available in regional languages. The remark was made during the hearings on marriage equality petitions before a Constitution bench of the Supreme Court led by CJI DY Chandrachud.

Senior Advocate Rakesh Dwivedi, while furthering his submissions, said–

"One important aspect of these proceedings is that there is churning in the society. Because of live streaming, people are thinking about it."

To this, the CJI remarked that live-streaming of court proceedings had really taken the Supreme Court to the homes and hearts of the common citizens. Dwivedi was quick to point out that although live-streaming was indeed a step in the right direction, the issue was that all debates happened in English in the Supreme Court and people living in the villages or small towns could not understand and follow the same. "Language problem is complex in India," he added.

Responding to Dwivedi, the CJI said–

"We're also working on that. Even that is not lost to the Supreme Court on its administrative side. We're working to ensure that live-streaming content can be simultaneously made available in other languages."

In 2018, a Supreme Court verdict had granted approval for live-streaming of the proceedings of the Court in principle. However, it was only 2022,  that the Supreme Court live-streamed its proceedings for the first time. The live-streaming of Constitution Bench hearings started during the term of CJI UU Lalit.  Later, in February 2023, the Supreme Court commenced the utilisation of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and technology powered by Natural Language Processing to provide live transcriptions of its hearings. TERES, a company that has been supplying this facility to arbitration practitioners, is providing the transcription service. The transcripts are uploaded on the Court's website as well.