Supreme Court to live-stream its constitution bench proceedings from September 27

In a bid to enhance transparency and accessibility in its functioning the Supreme Court has decided to livestream its proceedings of all constitution bench hearings from September 27 exactly four years after a pathbreaking verdict in this regard was delivered in 2018A unanimous decision was taken by the 30 judges of the apex court in the full court meeting headed by Chief Justice of India U U Lalit held on Tuesday evening to implement an apex court verdict of 2018 in the Swapnil Tripathi caseOn August 26 for the first time since its inception the Supreme Court had live streamed its proceedings of a bench headed by then Chief Justice NV Ramana through a webcast portalIt was ceremonial proceedings as Justice Ramana was to demit office on August 26Also Read Shinde faction asks HC not to hear Uddhavled Senas plea for Dussehra rally nodExactly four years back on September 26 2018 the Supreme Court had taken a major leap in imparting transparency in the functioning of the judiciary by allowing livestreaming of court proceedings of cases of constitutional and national importance saying this openness was like sunlight which is the best disinfectantIt had said as a pilot project only a specified category of cases that are of constitutional or national importance and are being argued before a constitution bench should be live streamedThe top court had said that sensitive cases such as those dealing with matrimonial disputes or sexual assault should not be live streamedSeveral important cases are to be heard by the fivejudge constitution benches of the apex court next week including the validity of the 103rd constitution amendment granting a 10 per cent quota to the Economically Weaker Section EWS pleas challenging the constitutional validity of the Citizenship Amendment Act and othersRecently activistlawyer Indira Jaising who had also filed a separate petition in 2018 seeking live streaming of the court proceedings has written a letter to CJI UU Lalit seeking implementation of the 2018 verdict and live broadcast of proceedings of constitution bench cases heard by the apex courtAccording to sources initially the apex court may live stream the proceedings through YouTube and would later host them on its serverPeople would be able to access the proceedings of the apex court on their cell phones laptops and computers without any hassleOn September 6 Justice DY Chandrachud who is next in line to become chief justice of India and heads the ECommittee of the apex court while hearing a case recalled an incident when he had seen someone recording court proceedings on a cell phoneYesterday I saw someone using a mobile phone perhaps recording what we were saying during the proceedings Initially I thought how can he record the proceedings But then my thoughts changed Whats the big deal in it Its an open court hearing Nothing is confidential here Justice Chandrachud had saidJustice Chandrachud who was also one of the authors of the 2018 verdict along with nowretired Justice AM Khanwilkar and then Chief Justice Dipak Misra said that there has to be a changed mindset and instead of taking a traditional view judges have to adopt a view of todays timeJustice Chandrachud however said that one should refrain from recording the discussions of judges among themselvesHe has been responsible for shifting the judiciary from Supreme Court to trial court level to virtualhybrid mode proceedings which enabled the judiciary to sail through the COVIDpandemic times when courts were closed for physical hearingsOn July 31 Justice Chandrachud while speaking at a valedictory ceremony of the first All India District Legal Service Authorities meet held at Vigyan Bhawan here said that the judicial institution has to give up resistance to adopting modern means of communication to reach out to the masses and earn the respect of the community at large or else it will lose the gameWhile referring to tools like social media platforms he has said that the courts have been reticent to modern means of communicationHe was of the view that judges and judiciary have to shed their fear whether it is about using platforms like Twitter and Telegram which are now widely prevalent or the live streaming of proceedingsThere is a world of accountability at large and I think we can earn the respect of the community at large provided we adopt and come on the platforms which are so prevalent in the society The judicial system cannot be left behind if we are to be the harbinger of change Justice Chandrachud had saidHe had added Unless we as a judicial institution shake this resistance to adopting these means of communications which are so widespread in our society today we would perhaps lose the game and I do believe that we are already in the process of losing the game unless we shake this fear as to what would happen if we use modern means of communicationThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility 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