New Delhi,Sept 22,2022: In a bid to enhance transparency and accessibility in its functioning, the Supreme Court has decided to live-stream its proceedings of all constitution bench hearings from 27 September, exactly four years after a path-breaking verdict in this regard was delivered in 2018.
A unanimous decision was taken by the 30 judges of the apex court in the full court meeting headed by Chief Justice of India UU Lalit held on Tuesday evening to implement an apex court verdict of 2018 in the Swapnil Tripathi case.
On 26 August, for the first time since its inception, the Supreme Court had live streamed its proceedings of a bench headed by then Chief Justice NV Ramana through a webcast portal.
It was ceremonial proceedings as Justice Ramana was to demit office on 26 August.
Exactly four years back on 26 September, 2018, the Supreme Court had taken a major leap in imparting transparency in the functioning of the judiciary by allowing live-streaming of court proceedings of cases of “constitutional and national importance”, saying this openness was like “sunlight” which is the “best disinfectant”.
It had said as a pilot project, only a specified category of cases that are of constitutional or national importance and are being argued before a constitution bench should be live streamed.
The top court had said that sensitive cases such as those dealing with matrimonial disputes or sexual assault should not be live streamed.
Several important cases are to be heard by the five-judge constitution benches of the apex court next week including the validity of the 103rd constitution amendment granting a 10 per cent quota to the Economically Weaker Section (EWS), pleas challenging the constitutional validity of the Citizenship Amendment Act and others.
