Gujarat HC becomes first state apex court to live-stream proceedings on Youtube

Source:-https://www.newindianexpress.com

NEW DELHI: The Gujarat High Court on Monday became the first high court in the country to live-stream its court proceedings on Youtube in order to enhance access to courts, especially during the Covid-19 pandemic

The first day of live streaming saw 1,500 viewers watching the proceedings. Like other high courts, the Gujarat HC has switched to virtual hearings after the Covid lockdown was put in place in March.

After virtual hearings became the norm, some courts became more restrictive, disallowing anyone but those directly related to the case to attend hearings.

A statement by Gujarat high court chief justice Vikram Nath said, “This is aimed at effectuating and broadening the implementation of the open court concept even for virtual hearings.”

The link for each day can be accessed on the HC’s website and YouTube channel. Links for the following day will be updated in the evenings.

Though currently the live-streaming is done only for the chief justice’s court, the administration is keeping a watch on how this goes and then it will decide whether to continue with this, or try out another way to giving access to virtual court proceedings.

The HC referred to a Supreme Court judgment which ruled that the public should be allowed to view court hearings conducted through video conferencing.

In a judgment passed by former CJI Dipak Misra and Justice A M Khanwilkar, the SC had ruled that live-streaming of hearings was an extension of the principle of open courts and would bring transparency and accountability.