People sitting in Assam may very soon get the live streaming of the ongoing National Register of Citizen (NRC) case in the Supreme Court.
If everything goes well, the live streaming may start off with one court as a pilot project and then it could be extended to the rest of its courts.
A bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra, Justice A M Khanwilkar and Justice D Y Chandrachud said if they go for live-streaming then it would start off with one court as a pilot project and then be extended to the rest of its courts.
Senior advocate Indira Jaising, the petitioner in the matter had sought only live streaming of cases of national importance like constitutional bench matters but the Attorney General K K Venugopal favoured the telecast of all except rape and matrimonial cases.
The apex court now has sought ‘comprehensive and holistic guidelines’ from Attorney General Venugopal.
Venugopal, however, told the court that the government would set up a dedicated channel on the lines of the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha TV, if the court decided to go for live telecast of its proceedings.
Justice Chandrachud said the live-streaming of the top court proceedings would bring transparency and access to justice. He said litigants would know what transpired at the hearing of their cases.
Indira Jaising said that live telecast of such cases will increase access to courts, and will negate the chances of any “misreporting, or second-hand information.”