RTI on live-streaming of proceedings of Madras High Court

RTI on live-streaming of proceedings of Madras High Court

In response to a Right to Information (RTI) application, the Madras High Court has revealed that it has not taken any steps to implement the Supreme Court's directions on live-streaming of court proceedings. Saurav Das, an independent journalist, had filed an RTI application seeking details on the execution of live streaming of court proceedings in accordance with the judgment by the Supreme Court in Swapnil Tripathi v. Supreme Court of India. The High Court's reply also stated that a policy decision had not been taken to provide a public viewing of all court proceedings. In an evasive response to a query regarding the continuation of virtual hearings after the COVID-19 situation subsides, the Court repeated that no policy decision had been taken with respect to the same. The judgement in Swapnil Tripathi v. Supreme Court of India was delivered on September 26, 2018 by a Bench of former Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra and Justices AM Khanwilkar and DY Chandrachud. The judgment came in a batch of petitions, one of which was filed by Swapnil Tripathi, and another by Senior Advocate Indira Jaising. The Court had mooted the idea of live-streaming cases of constitutional importance on a pilot basis. Attorney General of India KK Venugopal had also submitted a set of guidelines for implementing the pilot project in the Chief Justice’s Court. He stated that this exercise could be implemented in other courtrooms based on the success of the pilot project. While hearing this matter, the Bench had observed that a step like live streaming “was the need of the hour” not only for decongesting the courtrooms, but also to fully implement the idea of an “open court”. The High Courts of Gujarat and Karnataka have recently taken to live-streaming proceedings before the their respective Chief Justices Benches.