CHIEF Justice of India (CJI) NV Ramana Wednesday launched a special facility for granting media access to the Supreme Court’s new mobile application even as he announced that the apex court’s website would have a new feature, called “Indicative Notes” that would aim to provide concise summaries of landmark judgments in an easy-to-understand format.
This will, he said, serve as a useful resource for media persons and the general public who wish to be better informed about the rulings of the court.
He added that he was also actively considering the proposal to live telecast proceedings of the Supreme Court, but there would have to be a consensus among the judges before concrete steps were initiated in this regard.
Speaking at the event to launch a mobile app for journalists, CJI Ramana said transparency was a time-honoured principle when it came to the judicial process in our country.
The App will provide access to online court proceedings for which journalists were dependents until now on advocates sharing video conferencing links with them.
He lauded the efforts of the tech team for developing the mobile application, pointing out that even though some members of the team were down with Covid19, they still worked from home and were able to launch the feature within seven days.
Justice Ramana revealed that till now approximately 800 registry staff had tested positive for the coronavirus and three among them had succumbed to the disease.
He said 2768 judicial officers and 106 high court judges had tested positive for the virus and from among them, 34 judicial officers and three high court judges had lost their lives. He was yet to receive data from two major high courts, he said.
Justice DY Chandrachud who heads the e-committee, and is down with Covid19 also remotely joined the event. The staff who were part of the team that made the app had tested positive as did other members of the team. “All of us are in this together. We hope that this facility which CJI unveils will keep you all safe. Journalists are exposed so much to the outside world,” he said.
Justices AM Khanwilkar and Hemant Gupta also attended the event.
