Amid the transparency debate in the judicial proceedings, senior lawyer Indira Jaising on Thursday filed a petition in the Supreme Court seeking live streaming and video recording of "cases of national importance impacting the public at large".
This comes days after four senior Supreme Court judges, in a unprecedented press meet, criticised the Chief Justice of India on a litany of issues, including assignment of cases to benches.
"I have filed a petition for live streaming of court proceedings especially matters of national importance , especially hearings in Aadhar , mentioned todsy before Chief Justice , do hope it gets listed soon (sic)," she tweeted.
Advertisement
Arguing that "justice should not only be done but seen to be done", which is part of the document -- Restatement of Values of Judicial Life-- adopted by the Supreme Court in 1997, Jaising in her petition said that the provision of live streaming /video recording would enable the citizens to have first hand information of case proceedings and affect them directly or indirectly.
"Live streaming of cases of national importance would also inspire public confidence in the judiciary, and bring transparency, andaccountability in the administration of justice. Further, this would avoid the spread of misinformation, conscious disinformation, and misunderstanding of the role of the Court in these matters," said the petition.
Advertisement
The move will significatly contribute towards the educational role of the judiciary, she said, adding that an exception be made in the interest of privacy when hearing family law cases. "Live streaming of cases of national importance would also inspire public confidence in the judiciary, and bring transparency, and accountability in the administration of justice. Further, this would avoid the spread of misinformation, conscious disinformation, and misunderstanding of the role of the Court in these matters."
"While there is no problem with healthy criticism and criticism must be welcomed, live streaming of the arguments would encourage the understanding of the basis on which the decisions were made," Jaising wrote in the petition.
