Supreme Court Asks Attorney General to Frame 'Holistic' Guidelines on Live Streaming of Court Proceedings

New Delhi, Aug 3: The Supreme Court today asked the attorney general to frame "holistic" guidelines for its perusal and approval on video recording and live streaming of court proceedings. A bench headed by Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra also asked the parties - including senior advocate Indira Jaising, who has filed the PIL seeking video recording of proceedings in important constitutional matters - to provide their suggestions to AG K K Venugopal.

The bench, comprising justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud, said the top law officer would collate the suggestions and prepare holistic guidelines for perusal and approval of the court. Venugopal said the guidelines would be also sent to the government for its perusal and inputs. For this, he sought two weeks time from the court.

The bench has now fixed the matter for hearing on August 17. The Centre had said that video recording and live streaming of judicial proceedings can be undertaken on a trial basis in constitutional matters being heard by the chief justice of India's court.

The bench was also told by Venugopal, whose assistance was sought by the court, that a pilot project for live streaming and video recording of judicial proceedings can be undertaken on an experimental basis.

Jaising, in her plea, has sought live streaming of matters of constitutional and national importance. She said citizens have the right to information and matters of constitutional and national importance can be live streamed.

In western countries, she said, this system was in place and live streaming of court proceedings, including that of the International Court of Justice, are available on YouTube.

If live streaming of the top court's proceedings is not possible, then video recording should be allowed, she said. According to her, live streaming of Supreme Court cases of constitutional and national importance, having an impact on the public at large, will empower and provide access to citizens who cannot personally come to the court due to socio-economic constraints

A petition, filed by a law student, has also sought a direction for setting up live streaming rooms within the apex court premises and granting access to legal interns.

The plea, filed by Swapnil Tripathi, a student of National Law University in Jodhpur, has asked for requisite guidelines to facilitate interns to witness proceedings.