#Exclusive: RTI Finds Supreme Court Unwilling to Facilitate Live Streaming of Proceedings

The article was originally published in The Logical Indian. Read here.

In a bizarre reply to an RTI filed by this author on behalf of The Logical Indian, the Supreme Court of India has said that the judgement pronouncing implementation of live streaming of court proceedings is “under consideration of the Registry”. In September 2018, a 3-Judge bench in the Swapnil Tripathi Vs. The Supreme Court of India had unanimously held that people’s ability to view live broadcasts of its proceedings flowed from the right of access to justice under Article 21 of the Indian Constitution. Further, the judgement noted that publishing court proceedings is an aspect of Article 129 and that open courts help foster public confidence in the judiciary. India is the only country amongst other leading constitutional democracies that maintains neither audio or video recordings, nor even a transcript of its court proceedings. The judgement had opened doors for extending such live-streaming facility of all cases even in the High Courts and lower courts of the country.