Court limits use of live hearing footage

The Supreme Court has passed an interim order prohibiting the unauthorized use or circulation of live-streamed court proceedings on social media and other digital platforms without prior permission. This move is a push back against the misuse of videos of court hearings.

A Bench of Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V Mohana passed the order while considering a plea seeking restraint on the unauthorized extraction and monetization of videos of court proceedings.

According to the order, there shall be no posting, reposting, extraction, modification, dissemination, monetization, recording, or review of the live-streamed proceedings of the Court on social media or any other digital platform without the prior permission of the concerned Registrar and the Secretary General of the Court and Registrar General of High Courts.

The order stated that it shall have no bearing on news reporting, and the Secretary General of the Supreme Court and Registrar General of High Courts shall display this order on their court websites.

Justice Mohana clarified that the interim order passed is not meant to be a gag on news reports, saying “This is not a gag order on the press.”

Earlier in the hearing, the Bench had expressed that it is not feasible or fair to expect all courtrooms to live-stream court hearings for all times to come, as it is difficult to manage the circulation of such live-streams once they are uploaded on the public domain.

Justice Bagchi observed that courtroom hearings cannot be reduced to entertainment that belittles the justice system, saying “All this data that goes into public forum.. This is the biggest challenge, to manage the data. Don’t make live-streaming an option, but an exception.”

Related: Injured workers win stronger claim protections

CJI Kant added that all these incidents are forcing them to rethink, and Solicitor General Tushar Mehta joined in expressing concerns about the circulation of courtroom videos without context, which may involve evidence in certain cases.

SG Mehta also flagged that Artificial Intelligence tools are being used to modify the content of courtroom recordings when they are circulated, saying “There are IT tools or AI tools that can now alter spoken words while preserving the same lip movements.”

The Court issued notice on the plea to all States and sought their responses, and the Central government was asked to examine whether the prayers made in the plea can be implemented.

The Bench sought a report from the High Courts on the adoption of rules to regulate the live-streaming of courtroom hearings, and they shall also give a report on the aspect of continuous live streaming of proceedings.

Before parting with the case for the day, the Bench indicated that it may put in place certain guardrails to regulate access to and circulation of courtroom recordings.

Justice Bagchi said “We cannot stop the demon that is out of the bag but we can regulate to maintain the sanctity of our institution.”