From Our Bureau
NEW DELHI: Noting the YouTube channels of six High Courts, the Supreme Court is also planning livestreaming of its proceedings on YouTube in the third phase of its e-courts project to use the information technology in the Indian judiciary. It has plans to ultimately go for own exclusive channel to lifestream the proceedings.
Six High Courts of Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, Orissa, Patna and Jharkhand have own channels on YouTube, following the model guidelines of the Supreme Court’s e-committee circulated in June 2021.
The development comes more than three years after the Supreme Court first recommended live streaming its hearings — on 26 September, 2018, a Bench led by then Chief Justice of India (CJI) declared live telecast of court proceedings part of the right to access justice under Article 21 of the Constitution.
ThePrint media website quoted an official associated with the e-courts project that the SC e-Committee thought of establishing a platform of its own after seeing the positive response that the various high courts’ YouTube channels have been getting.
Once this platform becomes operational, the high courts that already have their own channels will switch over too. “The e-Committee is devoted to the cause of transparency in judicial process and an exclusive platform to live stream court hearings is an effort towards achieving this objective,” the official said.
The Supreme Court’s e-Committee is headed by sitting Supreme Court judge Justice Dr D.Y. Chandrachud, which is giving finishing touches to the model life-streaming guidelines.
Another official said that having such a platform will also address privacy concerns and data security issues that come with streaming court proceedings on a public platform.
“The social media platform in use right now is a public one and concerns have been raised regarding privacy of proceedings as well as the data that is now shared online. It was, therefore, felt that it would be better to have an exclusive channel that can become an alternative platform to telecast live court proceedings,” the official said.
