SC bans posting, reposting of court hearing clips without prior permission | India News
NEW DELHI: Supreme Court on Friday passed an interim order banning social media and digital media platforms from transmitting, storing, uploading, posting or reposting clips of court proceedings without prior permission from the top court or the concerned high court.The apex court issued the direction after taking strong exception to the selective circulation of clips from live-streamed hearings, observing that such content was being used in a manner that maligned the judiciary and distorted courtroom proceedings.A bench comprising Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V Mohana also issued notices to the Centre and other respondents on a plea seeking guidelines to regulate the clipping, editing, dissemination and monetisation of videos of court proceedings on digital platforms.“As an interim measure, it is directed that there shall be no extraction, modification, dissemination, posting, reposting, uploading or monetisation of audio-video recordings of judicial proceedings on social media or other digital platforms without prior permission of the Secretary General of this Court or the Registrar General of the jurisdictional High Courts,” the bench observed.The order was passed while hearing a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by a journalist seeking a regulatory framework for the use of audiovisual recordings of court proceedings on digital platforms.The petition contended that selective, edited and decontextualised clips of live-streamed hearings were being widely circulated on social media, undermining the dignity of courts and eroding public confidence in the justice delivery system.Appearing for the petitioner, senior advocate Vikas Singh argued that videos of court proceedings were increasingly being misused across social media and other digital platforms. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta supported the concern, telling the court that “there has to be some regulation.”The Supreme Court, however, clarified that the interim order does not affect fair and accurate news reporting of court proceedings.
