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The Allahabad High Court on Thursday, while hearing a plea for enabling Live streaming and Live-reporting of Court proceedings across the State of Uttar Pradesh, including the High Courts, Subordinate Courts and Tribunals noted that, its administrative side is working on all aspects of live streaming and live reporting of Court proceeding to increase the ambit for its audience

A Division Bench of Justice Pankaj Naqvi and Justice Jayant Banerji adjourned the matter for six weeks and observed that,

"No one is disputing your right. They're working on all the aspects of the matter, we have to give them some time."

The Court further noted that, there was no need to pass any interim order in the matter after the Petitioner's counsel urged the Court to direct that no coercive action shall be taken against the media persons in case they live report the court proceedings. The Bench responded, "Who is preventing you?”

The Bench was informed by the learned counsel representing the High Court that guidelines for Live Streaming have been received by the Chief Justice of the High Court from the Chairman of the E-Committee of the Supreme Court and suggestions have been invited for the same.

The petition is preferred by petitioner Sparsh Upadhyay who is a legal journalist with Live Law along with another legal journalist and three other law students.

The present plea averred that,

“Owing to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic situation, the access of the litigants, media personnel and public generally, including the petitioners – legal journalists and law students, to the Court proceedings, have been extremely restricted. Even in the pre-COVID-19 era, Court proceedings were largely inaccessible to the public at large. The people, for any information on the Court proceedings, in cases of constitutional and public importance or touching upon the rights of a considerable section of people, need to rely upon second-hand and hearsay sources, which, more often than not, suffer from various flaws and the vice of inaccuracy.”

The plea further stated that,

“With the forward march of technology and the easy availability and abundance of the same, live streaming/telecast of the Court hearings are now reasonably and easily possible, thereby greatly expanding the concept of ‘open Court’ which would now include within its sweep, the Court’s electronic/digital presence through live telecast/streaming.”

It must be noted that, the people have a fundamental right of access to justice and right to know, guaranteed to them, under Article 19(1)(a) and Article 21 of the Constitution of India, for which reason the public is entitled to witness Court hearings/proceedings involving issues having an impact on the public at large or a section of the public, as the case may be.

Taking into account the facts of the present case the petitioners referred to the decision given by the Supreme Court of India where it has allowed the live streaming/telecast of its proceedings in the matter of Swapnil Tripathi & ORS. v. Supreme Court of India & ORS AIR 2018 SC 4806 / (2018) 10 SCC 639, while observing that:  “Live-streaming of court proceedings is manifestly in public interest. It is important to reemphasise the significance of live-streaming as an extension of the principle of open justice and open courts.”

Therefore the petitioners asserted that,

 “when the VC hearings, as are in currency now, by their design itself, militate against the well cherished and hallowed principle of ‘Open Court’ and ‘Open Justice System’ by excluding access to the public, including the petitioners (as journalists and law students) proliferating a system of ‘Justice behind closed doors,’ in teeth of the very basic structure and foundations of the Constitution. Accordingly, the public, including the petitioners as journalists and law students, deserve to get access to behold and witness the magnificence and glory of the Courts proceedings in full bloom, so that justice must not only be done, but also seen to be done.”

Hence, the petitioners in the interests of justice urged the Court to pass an ad interim order with the following prayers: 

i. Directing that a dedicated Media Room – on the lines of the Media Room in the Hon’ble Supreme Court and Gujarat High Court – be set up within the premises of this Hon’ble Court and the respective District Judiciaries, equipped with necessary technological and infrastructural facilities, to ensure that all persons including litigants, journalists, interns, visitors and lawyers are able to view the VC and physical proceedings and the live streaming thereof; AND/OR 

ii. Directing that there should be a single VC link for the entire Causelist(s) in this Hon’ble Court, for all the parties to join – on the lines of the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India, Bombay High Court, Madras High Court, Kerala High Court, etc. – in order to harmonize the VC hearings, with the ‘Open Justice’ principle, so as to bring the experience and purport of Virtual Hearings as close as possible to the physical ‘Open Court’;

iii. Directing that the public, including the petitioners, as Journalists/media-persons and students of law, may be allowed to freely and easily access the Virtual Courts through the VC links, which may very well be published, to be publicly accessible, on the website of this Hon’ble Court or along with the Causelist(s) of each day – on the lines of the Bombay High Court, Kerala High Court, Madras High Court, etc.; AND/OR 

iv. Directing that the VC links for the hearings of each day be sent to the mobiles (via SMS), emails or whatsapp of the journalists/media-persons, registered as legal correspondents with this Hon’ble Court. The same may be done by providing a registration procedure to the journalists/media-persons to register themselves with the database of this Hon’ble Court, as legal correspondents thereof – pursuant to which the VC links may be sent directly to all such persons; AND/OR 

v. In the alternative, directing that the VC links be allowed to be freely accessed by or shared with the journalists/media-persons, so as to join the Virtual Hearings and report the same as the unfold, including Live-Reporting the arguments of the counsels for the parties, remarks of the Judges, outcomes, etc., on Twitter and such other public platforms; AND/OR 

vi. Directing that a system be put in place, providing for allowing free and easy access to the journalists, media-persons and press reporters, into the Court premises by showing their registered IDs or special Media passes (for which provision may be made by this Hon’ble Court) at the gate(s), to and gain entry into any Courtroom(s) or the designated Media-room(s), so as to report the ongoing proceedings.