September 27, will mark a revolutionary change in India’s Judiciary history as all constitution bench hearings in the Supreme Court will be live-streamed from this day.
How Did This Happen?
In this regard, a full court, comprising all judges of the top court, deliberated upon the matter on Tuesday.
They have decided to live-stream constitutional bench proceedings from next week.
Interestingly, all the judges were unanimous in their decision that live-streaming, on a regular basis, should commence with broadcasting constitutional cases at the BH meeting, which was presided over by Chief Justice of India (CJI) Uday Umesh Lalit.
Which Cases Will Be Streamed Live?
Coming to o the constitutional bench cases, which are likely to be live-streamed includes challenges to the EWS quota law, religious practice of excommunication in the Dawoodi Bohra community, Supreme Court’s power to dissolve marriages on the ground of irretrievable breakdown and the Centre’s petition on enhanced compensation for victims of 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy.
The senior advocate, Indira Jaising had written to the CJI and his companion judges last week.
They have requested the Supreme Court to begin live streaming of proceedings of matters of public and constitutional importance.
Indira Jaising was one of the petitioners in 2018, who have requested the declaration of live-streaming as part of the right to freedom of information and the right of access to justice for every citizen.
Exclusive Platform For Live-streaming
So far, the top court’s e-Committee has been working on a proposal to launch an exclusive platform for live-streaming court proceedings reportedly.
Basically, the proposition to have an exclusive platform to live-stream apex court proceedings was part of the third phase of the e-courts project.
This seems to be an ambitious initiative to implement the use of information and technology in India’s judiciary.
Besides this, the judges also deliberated upon a more effective system of listing cases at the meeting on Tuesday.
This is to allot sufficient time on concluding a matter once it starts being heard at.
Recently, the Supreme Court bench had highlighted the difficulty of finally deciding a matter owing to the new listing system through a judicial order.
Earlier, a new system of listing has been put in vogue, After CJI Lalit has taken the helm.
It was aimed at faster disposal of cases, particularly the ones pending in the top court for long.
Notably, the Supreme Court saw more than 5,000 cases getting wrapped up, in his first 13 days.