THE Allahabad High Court has been told by its registry that the live streaming of court proceedings is under active consideration on the administrative side of the court after it received a communication from the e-Committee of the Supreme Court seeking suggestions from the Chief Justice in the matter.
This disclosure was made on Thursday in response to a petition filed by Areeb Uddin Ahmed and Sparsh Upadhyay who are legal correspondents for Bar and Bench and Livelaw respectively, seeking live streaming of court proceedings.
A bench of Justices Pankaj Naqvi and Jayant Banerji who heard the matter adjourned the plea to June 27 to enable the high court registry to apprise the court of the decision likely to be made on the issue of live streaming.
Advocate Shashwat Anand, appearing for the petitioners asked for an interim direction that no coercive action may be taken against the media for live reports of the court proceedings. However, the court opined that there was no need for such directions as there was no dispute as to the rights of journalists. “Who is preventing you?” the court asked in response to advocate Anand.
The petitioners, a total of five in number, who are journalists and law students, have contended that owing to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the access of litigants, media personnel and the public at large, to court proceedings, has been severely restricted.
