The Karnataka High Court has taken the call of commencing the live streaming of the court and case proceedings on the online video streaming and social media platform YouTube. The first live stream was released on YouTube on the page of Karnataka High Court’s official YouTube page on May 31.
The first hearing which went live on YouTube was from Court Hall number one, which was heard by a division bench led by Chief Justice Abhay Shreeniwas Oka and Justice Suraj Govindaraj. The High Court said, “Today at 2:40 pm, the Live Telecast of Proceedings in WP 1322/2020 (PIL) Connected with WP 2336/2020 in Court Hall-1 would be telecast Live on Youtube.”
The bench was hearing the ultimate proceedings for the two PIL petitions – the first lodged by an organization called Baithkol Bandaru Nirashritara Yantrika Dhoni Meenugarara Sahakara Sangha, who is opposing land acquisitions and the second PIL was by the Uttara Kannada District Fishermen Association.
The Allahabad High Court and the Madhya Pradesh High Court are all geared up to hear the appeal of the journalists who urged for permission to have live-streaming and live-reporting of the court proceedings.
With the rising cases of Covid-19 and the lockdown imposed in the state of Karnataka, the High Court had released the guidelines to have online hearings of the trials. In district and taluk courts.
With the court hearings taking the digital leap, the Karnataka High Court took the call of initiating live streaming of the proceedings.