SC ready to consider plea seeking adherence to live-streaming court proceedings

The Supreme Court on Tuesday expressed its readiness to consider a plea to adhere to 2018 judgement for live-streaming of its proceedings in important or Constitution bench matters.

Senior advocate Indira Jaising asked a bench presided over by Chief Justice S A Bobde to follow the September 26, 2018 judgement for live-streaming of the court proceedings.

The bench, also comprising Justices B R Gavai and Surya Kant, agreed to fix her application, related to sticking of the schedule, for consideration after two weeks.

In a major step towards transparency, the top court had then allowed live-streaming of court proceedings of cases of constitutional and national importance, saying the openness was like "sunlight" which is the "best disinfectant".

The court had then passed its judgement on a Law student, Swapnil Tripathi, and others, saying live-streaming of the court proceedings will effectuate people's right to know, reduce reliance on second-hand narrative, serve educational purposes, enhance Rule of Law and legal understanding, remove physical barriers and enhance the accountability of judicial institutions.

To begin with, only a specified category of cases or cases of constitutional and national importance being argued for final hearing before the Constitution Bench be live-streamed as a pilot project, it had said.