Supreme Court agrees to hear plea to live-stream Ayodhya title dispute hearings

SC has already held that sunlight is the best disinfectant, the petition said

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

The Supreme Court on Wednesday agreed to hear on September 16 a plea to live-stream the Ayodhya title dispute hearings.

Appearing before the five-judge Bench led by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi, senior advocate Vikas Singh, for activist K.N. Govindacharya, said the hearings concerned an issue of social and constitutional gravity.

The Govindacharya petition has reminded the Supreme Court of its own judgment of September 2018 that ordered live-streaming of hearings in momentous cases of national importance. The judgment is yet to be implemented.

‘Large-scale interest’

The petitioner said the case “famously known as the Ayodhya Ram Mandir matter” has created large-scale interest across India.

“The Supreme Court has already held that sunlight is the best disinfectant. Live streaming as an extension of the principle of open courts will ensure that the interface between a court hearing with virtual reality will result in the dissemination of information in the widest possible sense, imparting transparency and accountability to the judicial process,” the petition said.

The petition said the Ayodhya case had been pending in the Supreme Court for the last nine years, and the public at large was interested in knowing the reasons behind the delay in deciding cases at the Supreme Court.