Live streaming of court proceedings: Gujarat High Court warns of misuse

The Gujarat High Court has issued an opinion on the misuse of live-streamed court proceedings. The bench, led by Justice A S Supehia and Justice Gita Gopi, stated that live-streamed videos of court proceedings must be removed from platforms like YouTube after a specific period.

However, the court acknowledged that the authority to make such decisions lies with the Chief Justice, leaving the matter to their discretion. The court has directed the registry to inform the Chief Justice accordingly.

The ruling came after the Gujarat High Court rejected a contempt petition filed by ArcelorMittal Nippon Steel India, its officials, and their lawyers. The petition was dismissed with serious remarks about the petitioner’s conduct. 

The Gujarat Operational Creditors Association (GOCA) and its lawyer, Deepak Khosla, were found to have filed the petition with malicious intent, aiming to tarnish the reputation of the judges and opposing lawyers. The bench imposed a ₹2 lakh fine on the petitioner and strongly condemned the misuse of contempt law.

In an important observation, the bench criticised the use of live-streamed videos as evidence. The petitioner had relied on a 259-page transcript of the court’s live-streamed proceedings, which was deemed improper. The court clarified that the Court Proceedings Live Streaming Rules-2021, Rule-5 does not authorise such videos as admissible evidence or part of the court record.

This ruling serves as a stern warning against the abuse of legal tools and emphasises the need to respect judicial processes in the era of digital court proceedings.

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