All Constitutional Bench hearings in the Supreme Court will be live-streamed from September 27. The decision was taken unanimously by all the top court judges in a full court meeting presided by Chief Justice of India UU Lalit. Following the meeting, it was decided that all these Constitutional hearings will be broadcasted on a regular basis.
The hearings will include cases such as the challenges to the Citizenship Amendment Act, the revocation of Article 370 granting special status to Jammu and Kashmir, the economically backward class quota law, the religious practice of ex-communication in the Dawoodi Bohra community, the Supreme Court’s power to dissolve marriages on the ground of irretrievable breakdown.
The decision comes after senior lawyer Indira Jaising, last week, wrote to the CJI and her fellow judges requesting the Supreme Court to begin live streaming of proceedings of matters of public and constitutional importance. In 2018, she was one of the petitioners to declare live-streaming part of freedom of information and the right of access to justice for every citizen.
A similar step was taken on August 26, when the hearings of previous CJI NV Ramana were live-streamed on his last day at the office.
In 2018, the apex court had ruled in favour of opening up the proceedings through live streaming — as per citizen rights under Article 21 of the Constitution — but that remained to be implemented. However, with Covid-19 lockdown and virtual hearings, it was quite evident that the infrastructure was available.