A Writ Petition was filed in the Hon’ble Supreme Court, seeking declaration for permitting live streaming of Supreme Court case proceedings of constitutional and national importance having an impact on the public at large and a direction to make available the necessary infrastructure for live streaming and to frame guidelines for the determination of such cases which are of constitutional and national importance. The Hon’ble Supreme Court vide its Judgment dated 26^th September, 2018 in Writ Petition (Civil) No. 66 of 2018 – Indira Jai Singh versus Secretary General of Supreme Court & Others has, inter-alia, observed that : (i) it is important to re-emphasise the significance of live-streaming as an extension of the principle of open justice and open courts; (ii)The process of live-streaming should be subjected to carefully structured guidelines, (iii) Initially, a pilot project may be conducted for about three months by live-streaming only cases of national and constitutional importance which can be expanded in due course with availability of infrastructure.

The eCommittee of the Supreme Court has set up a Committee to draw up Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for Live Streaming. Additionally, under the guidance of eCommittee, Supreme Court of India, a sub-committee was constituted for framing Model Rules for Live Streaming. The said rules have been forwarded to Computer Committee of High Courts for the feedback and suggestions.

Live Streaming of video conferencing of proceedings has been started in High Courts of Gujarat, Orissa, Karnataka, Jharkhand, Patna and Madhya Pradesh thus allowing media and other interested persons to join the proceedings.

This information was given by Shri Kiren Rijiju, Union Minister of Law and Justice, in Lok Sabha today.

*******

BY/IG