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The Supreme Court on Friday said the commercial exploitation of live-streamed court proceedings was causing serious damage to the judiciary, stressing that safeguards were needed to prevent selective clipping, misrepresentation and use of videos for personal promotion.
You have no idea the damage caused to Bar and Bench... the institution in itself, Chief Justice of India Surya Kant remarked. A bench of CJI Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V Mohana was hearing a plea against the unauthorised extraction and monetisation of courtroom videos. Clarifying that the objective was neither to restrict live-streaming nor gag anyone, the CJI said court recordings were intended to inform the public, not serve commercial interests. The bench asked Solicitor General Tushar Mehta to collate suggestions from High Courts and other stakeholders to formulate safeguards and file a counter-affidavit incorporating the proposals received. Justice Bagchi flagged the use of courtroom clips for professional promotion, saying it was contrary to the principles governing the legal profession. Senior advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan suggested that any reproduction of hearings should include the entire proceedings, without added titles or descriptions. The apex court in July barred the unauthorised extraction, editing, uploading, reposting or dissemination of live-streamed court proceedings on social media and other digital platforms without prior permission of the Secretary General of the Supreme Court or the Registrar General of the concerned High Court. It clarified that the directions will not affect news reporting of court proceedings. The apex court passed the order on a PIL filed by Harshita Grover seeking guidelines to regulate the clipping, editing, dissemination and monetisation of audio-visual recordings of court proceedings on digital platforms. (ANI)
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