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Court to consider video recording of proceedings

Legal Correspondent

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday indicated that it would examine a suggestion for audio or video recording of proceedings so that oral arguments could be treated as court documents.

A Bench consisting of Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnan and Justice R.V. Raveendran told Prashant Bhushan, counsel for the petitioner Janhit Manch: “We will consider the issues raised in the petition [including the plea for recording of proceedings] in another petition relating to judicial reforms.” On April 15, the court issued notice on the Manch’s petition suggesting judicial reforms.

Mr. Bhushan said videography of proceedings would be beneficial to the public and also help in transparency. He pointed out that several problems faced by the judiciary resulted in shortage of quality judges, pendency of cases and non-implementation of reports of committees to improve the working of courts. The experiment in recording Parliament proceedings proved successful and it was time to introduce the facility in courts.

In his special leave petition, advocate R.T.P.S. Tulsi challenged a Punjab and Haryana High Court order refusing to entertain his plea. He said video recording would go a long way in ensuring that oral arguments also formed part of records.

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