{"id":331,"date":"2022-01-05T15:18:27","date_gmt":"2022-01-05T15:18:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/clt.nliu.ac.in\/?p=331"},"modified":"2022-01-13T18:09:53","modified_gmt":"2022-01-13T18:09:53","slug":"a-court-of-record-analysing-the-draft-model-rules-for-livestreaming-and-recording-of-court-proceedings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/clt.nliu.ac.in\/?p=331","title":{"rendered":"A Court of Record: Analysing the Draft Model Rules for Livestreaming and Recording of Court Proceedings"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Lakshya Singla, a Vth year B.A. LLB. (Hons.) student at National University of Juridical Sciences, Kolkata<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cJustice should not only be done but should manifestly and undoubtedly be seen to be done\u201d<\/em><\/p>Lord Hewart<\/a><\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

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Introduction<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Right to access justice is a fundamental right recognized and enforced, both domestically<\/a>  <\/del>and internationally<\/a>. Accessibility and transparency are important facets of access to justice<\/a>. The Supreme Court in  <\/em>Swapnil Tripathi v. Secretary-General<\/em><\/a>,<\/del> <\/em>took a step forward and decided that proceedings of constitutional and national importance should be livestreamed in public. The Supreme Court e-Committee<\/a>, a body set up to facilitate technology adoption in courts recently released a draft set of rules<\/a> for the livestreaming of court proceedings (\u201cthe Rules<\/strong>\u201d). Following this, The Gujarat High Court already started live streaming<\/a> all its proceedings on YouTube from July 2021, with other High Courts<\/a> and the Supreme Court<\/a> to follow suit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Through this piece, the author aims to discuss the concept of access to justice and highlight the issue of linguistic diversity in the livestreaming of court proceedings. Further, the author analyses the restrictions on livestreaming suggested by the Supreme Court e-Committee and presents solutions to address both issues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Notion of ‘Access’<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Black\u2019s Law Dictionary defines<\/a> \u2018access\u2019 as the \u201cfreedom of approach or communication; or the means, power, or opportunity of approaching, communicating, or passing to and from.\u201d<\/em> The term \u2018access to justice\u2019 means the freedom of an individual, or a group of individuals to have the freedom to approach a court of law, understand the process of seeking justice, and face no hurdles while interacting with the legal system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Cotton Corporation v United Industrial Bank<\/em><\/a>, <\/em>the Supreme Court observed that access to justice should not be hampered even at the hands of the judiciary. The live streaming of proceedings aims to translate into the realization of justice \u2018being done and seen to be done\u2019.<\/em> However, the aspect of freedom of communication and the viewing of justice being meted remain unaddressed in the new Rules. The Rules<\/a> lack provisions for the livestreaming to be made in different regional languages other than the languages of the court proceedings. Additionally, the Rules impose restrictions on livestreaming of matters of social importance relating to sexual offences, gender-based violence, religious disharmony, among others. The analysis of two factors, one<\/em>, the failure to account for linguistic diversity, and two<\/em>, the restrictions on live streaming, highlight the loopholes that need to be plugged in before the judiciary can achieve transparency and accessibility.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A<\/strong>. THE LANGUAGE CONUNDRUM<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Article 348(1)<\/a> of the Constitution mandates the use of English in High Courts and Supreme Courts unless the law provides otherwise. The 2011 Census<\/a> of India showed that English is spoken only by 10.67% of the population in India. As of 2019, in a nationally representative survey<\/a> by LokFoundation and Oxford University, less than 6% of the respondents could speak in English. Very few states such as Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Rajasthan, and Uttar Pradesh have authorized the use of Hindi in the High Courts. While 97%<\/a> of citizens in Kerala identified Malayalam as their mother tongue, Kerala High Court proceedings are conducted in English.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The idea of introducing regional languages within the courts has often been met with criticism<\/a> for promoting regionalism, linguistic bias, and lacing restrictions on the transfer of judges It has been argued to interfere with the idea of a single, integrated judiciary. With the recent steps taken towards livestreaming judicial proceedings by various state High Courts, the question of regional languages in court proceedings has again become relevant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As per the present Draft Rules<\/a>,<\/ins> only translations of proceedings in any of the Scheduled languages (Rule 10.2) may be made available, that too on certain conditions. These translations are created only if the Bench has issued a direction for the creation of transcripts (Rule 10.1). This implies that the proceedings of the courts will go on in English, with the possibility<\/em> of a translated transcript being made available to interested persons in other Scheduled languages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The inability to account for language diversity in court proceedings affects access to justice in two ways: firstly<\/em>, it will render the proceedings and decisions of the courts incomprehensible to a majority of the population, and secondly<\/em>, allow for misinterpretations due to lack of official translated versions for those cases where transcripts are not created. The second facet may be extremely crucial in sensitive cases concerned with communal or religious disharmony.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Regional languages play a key role in determining the rights and obligations of parties due to the varying levels of education and language fluency in the country. From the judiciary’s perspective, the language conundrum is even more apparent for High Courts with concurrent jurisdictions over multiple states\/UTs. For the Supreme Court and the High Courts, continued reliance on English or Hindi seems to limit rather than enhance the notion of transparency. It strengthens the fears of linguistic minorities of being overlooked, decreases access to the justice delivery system, and leaves citizens ignorant of their rights and obligations. Hence, the diversity of language is an important question while determining the efficacy of the recording and livestreaming of proceedings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

B. RESTRICTIONS ON LIVESTREAMING<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rule 5.2 of the Draft Rules<\/a> lists the category of cases that will not be live-streamed. Restrictions on Item (ii) – Cases concerning sexual offences, including proceedings instituted under Section 376, Indian Penal Code, 1860<\/a> (IPC), item (iii) – Cases concerning gender-based violence against women, and item (iv) – Matters registered under or involving the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012 (POCSO)<\/a> and under the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015<\/a>, need to be reviewed. \u00a0The intention of the Court towards protecting the identities of the victim and sensitive information is well recognized<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, the Supreme Court E-Committee<\/a> may consider a balanced approach by allowing broadcasting in certain cases, instead of a total prohibition. The influence of offences of sexual violence against women and children in shaping laws to enable better protection is well documented<\/a>. The public attention from society on the ineffectiveness of laws has often compelled lawmakers to usher<\/a> in stringent reforms. The Mathura<\/a> rape case, the Vishaka<\/a> case, and the Nirbhaya<\/a> rape cases have been instrumental in effecting policy and legislative changes for the protection of children and women from sexual violence in India. Constitution of Justice Verma Committee<\/a> and enactment of the Criminal Law Amendments of 2013<\/a> and 2018<\/a> are reflective of the success of the power of social mobilisation. Allowing livestreaming of the proceedings with the consent of the victim must be considered. In light of the Puttawsamy judgement<\/a> of the Supreme Court, which recognized the right to privacy of every individual as a fundamental right, the need to protect the right to privacy of every victim is sine qua non<\/em>. Livestreaming of proceedings of items highlighted above does pose a risk to the privacy of victims. However, these concerns may be addressed through various masking techniques such as aliases, electronic distortion among others, as recognized by the Committee in Rule 5.8 of the Draft Rules<\/a>. Hence, allowing livestreaming with adequate safeguards would help the Supreme Court E-Committee<\/a> in achieving its aims of enhancing judicial transparency and accessibility in India.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

CONCLUSION<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The commitment of the Supreme Court towards facilitating greater transparency and open justice must be lauded. A few suggestions to address the issues highlighted above are: firstly<\/em>, regional languages dubbed versions or proceedings or subtitles can tackle the language problem. Secondly<\/em>, creation of transcript translations in all Scheduled languages by appointing official translators as part of court staff or a centralized official translation staff under the Supreme Court with these translations having the same value as an order\/judgement in English and Hindi. Thirdly<\/em>, the Parliament should be encouraged to enact laws allowing for court proceedings in regional languages. Additionally<\/em>, the use of masking techniques while livestreaming and data storage would adequately address privacy concerns for all cases, including those pertaining to sexual violence against women and children.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The practice of court proceedings taking place only in Hindi or English is reminiscent of the colonial era disdain to for-the linguistic diversity of India. It imposes limitations on the right of citizens to equality and access to justice. In the process of livestreaming proceedings, true transparency needs to account for accessibility based on language and the power of mobilization. Hence, a truly transparent judiciary requires legislative and administrative reforms.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Lakshya Singla, a Vth year B.A. LLB. (Hons.) student at National University of Juridical Sciences, Kolkata \u201cJustice should not only be […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":332,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-331","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog-series","category-ib","col-md-6 col-sm-6"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/clt.nliu.ac.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/331","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/clt.nliu.ac.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/clt.nliu.ac.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clt.nliu.ac.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clt.nliu.ac.in\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=331"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/clt.nliu.ac.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/331\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":352,"href":"https:\/\/clt.nliu.ac.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/331\/revisions\/352"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clt.nliu.ac.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/332"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/clt.nliu.ac.in\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=331"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clt.nliu.ac.in\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=331"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clt.nliu.ac.in\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=331"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}