Supreme Court begins livestreaming of constitution bench proceedings

In a first, the Supreme Court on Tuesday began livestreaming its proceedings. The livestream is on the market on the government’s official platform.

The National Informatics Centre is handling the project, the new system was tested on Sunday and Monday and also the results were found to be satisfactory.

On August 26, proceedings before the ceremonial bench on the date of retirement of former judge of India (CJI) N V Ramana were livestreamed.

Significantly, on September 27, 2018, the then-CJI Dipak Misra had delivered the landmark judgement on the live telecast or webcast of important proceedings in matters of constitutional importance, saying “sunlight is that the best disinfectant”.

In an unanimous decision taken at a recent full court meeting headed by this CJI, UU Lalit, the apex court decided to livestream proceedings of all constitution bench hearings from September 27, four years after the path-breaking announcement by Justice Misra.

Incidentally, the incumbent CJI, heading a three-judge bench, had on Monday morning told a lawyer that the SC will have its own platform for livestreaming soon. 

The lawyer had urged the court that it should secure copyright of the proceedings if it plans to livestream on YouTube.

The apex court may livestream the proceedings through YouTube and later host them on its server, press association PTI quoted its sources as saying. People are going to be ready to access the proceedings on their cell phones, laptops, and computers with none hassle.