Live-streaming for ‘open courtroom’

SC accessible to all: Justice Chandrachud

The Supreme Court of India, at New Delhi, the Capital of India. Photo: Rajeev Bhatt , September 19, 2003.

Technology has a flip-side but live-streaming of Supreme Court proceedings is a true representation of the “open courtroom” system where courts are accessible to one and all, Justice D.Y. Chandrachud said on Friday.

The remark countered arguments that live-streaming of court proceedings would be misused, and verbal comments made by judges in the course of a hearing would be twisted and converted to “fake news”.

‘Authentic record’

To this Justice Chandrachud countered that court proceedings are live-tweeted even now and there is no authentic record of the hearing to prove a tweet wrong. “At least when the hearing is live-streamed, we will have an authentic record of what happened,” the judge responded.

Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra, who headed the Bench also comprising Justice A.M. Khanwilkar, said, “If a judge has made a comment, he should be quoted.”

The CJI said that, now, verbal comments of judges are read in words. “But people may want to see you speak, look into your eyes. Why should we feel shy about that?” the CJI asked.

The Chief Justice compared the situation to a poet who records himself as he reads his own poem, and said, “Had it been recorded on video, we could have seen him for ourselves and understood him better.”