Blitz Bureau
NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court has directed that audio and video recordings of judicial proceedings cannot be extracted, disseminated, monetised, or uploaded on social media and other digital platforms without prior permission of the Secretary General of the apex court or the Registrar Generals of the respective High Courts.
A bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V. Mohana passed the interim direction while issuing notice on a writ petition seeking implementation of a uniform framework for live streaming and recording of court proceedings across the country.
As an interim measure, the top court ordered that “there shall be no extraction, dissemination, monetisation, posting, re-posting, uploading, transmitting, modification, storing, or hosting of the audio-video recording(s) of the judicial proceedings on social media or any other digital platforms without prior permission of the Secretary General of the Supreme Court of India or the Registrar Generals of the jurisdictional High Courts”.
At the same time, the CJI Surya Kant-led Bench clarified that the interim order would not affect reportage of court proceedings by accredited media organisations.
“However, it is clarified that this order shall have no bearing on the reporting of Court proceedings by recognised news outlets,” it said.
During the hearing, the Supreme Court impleaded all High Courts in the country as parties to the proceedings, along with major social media intermediaries and technology platforms. It issued notice to the Union government, the Bar Council of India, all High Courts, and social media intermediaries.
