The High Court of Calcutta is the first Court in the country to allow live streaming of ongoing proceedings in a case filed by a Zoroastrian woman challenging the rule that restricts entry of children born from marriages conducted outside the community, into the fire temple which is the Zoroastrian community's place of worship. The Petitioner sought live streaming on the grounds that "a matter of national importance impacting the public at large, and Parsi Zoroastrians in particular, is being heard and decided. The Petition was filed against the Zoroastrian Anjuman Atash Adaram Trust and the Parsi Zoroastrian Association of Kolkata and there were five appeals arising from the same matter. The members of the appellant organisation wished to vicariously participate in the proceeding before the Court as it will not be easy for everyone to participate in the proceedings on the given day of the case.
The appellant did say to the bench that the Supreme Court of India in a recent judgment has considered the idea of live streaming of court proceedings involving matters of constitutional importance. The appellant in the case, Bardoli Jarthosti Anjuman v. Prochy N. Mehta And Ors has to establish that it has made arrangements for live streaming of proceedings in the trial court at its own costs. The appellant will need to get in touch with the Registrar, Administration-II, and the Registrar, Original side to ascertain the equipment and other paraphernalia necessary for the purpose. There is should be a leave obtained from the presiding judge before any equipment is set up for live proceedings. The bench said, The order passed on live streaming of the proceedings before the trial court, the prayer for audio-visual recording becomes irrelevant. It has been made clear that the live streaming of the proceedings will be effective for hearing in the course of the final hearing of the original summons and not in any interlocutory proceedings. The Bench consisting of Justices Sanjib Banerjee and Kaushik Chanda later added that there shall be no order as to costs.
Last week, the issue on implementation of broadcasting was addressed in the Supreme Court and the bench was headed by Justice Arun Mishra. The Attorney-General of India KK Venugopal replied to the bench informing that the process of installing infrastructure for live-streaming has started. The guidelines which were prescribed by the then Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra were that - there must be a cognitive delay of ten minutes separating the live proceedings and broadcast to guarantee that unspecified knowledge ought not to be bestowed upon the people, which can be edited by the court.
Author: Asif Iqbal
