On Wednesday, in a first such instance, the High Court of Calcutta High Court approved a petition for live-streaming of court proceedings in a case of rights filed by a Parsi woman. 

Even though in Sept 2018, a 3-Judge Bench of the Apex Court set the stage for live-streaming of court proceedings in cases of Constitutional importance, the Supreme Court had said during a hearing this month the issue would be dealt with by the CJI on the administrative side.  

However, a HC division bench of Justice Sanjib Banerjee & Justice Kausik Chanda, ordered that the final hearing of the case, filed by the Parsi petitioner, will be live-streamed on YouTube. Significantly, the plea was once turned down by the Court in Jan 2019. 

The case is on the Parsi woman’s petition seeking the Court’s approval for her granddaughter’s entry into the fire temple, the Zoroastrian community’s place of worship. The Parsi community doesn't provide these rights to the children of people who married outside the community. 

The applicant has sought live-streaming of the proceedings on the grounds that “a matter of national importance impacting the public at large, & Parsi Zoroastrians in particular, is being heard & decided”.  

The efforts to live-stream court proceedings began in 2018.   

Pushing for greater transparency in the judicial system, a 3-member Apex Court bench had directed the Modi Govt in Sept 2018 to frame rules & build adequate infrastructure for live-streaming of nationally-important cases.   

Since then, the case has been heard multiple times by the Apex Court, & the Modi Govt is still working on the modalities. On 4 Feb, the Supreme Court said that the issue related to the implementation of the 2018 verdict allowing live-streaming of constitutionally important cases would be dealt with by the CJI on the administrative side.  

The Supreme Court also said that rules would be framed for this & the said project will be accordingly carried out in phases. 

However, in the Parsi woman’s case, the High Court of Calcutta High Court has set a precedent in showing the way forward. The court said the modalities would be decided by the registrar of the original side, said advocate Phiroze Edulji, the petitioner’s counsel. 

“These proceedings are of utmost importance to the Parsi Community all over the country & hence the Parsi Zoroastrian Association of Kolkata had prayed for live-streaming so that there can be access to justice,” added Edulji.

Legal experts said that the high court is within its rights to order the live-streaming. 

“The SC decides on its orders, the high courts decide on theirs. There is no correlation,” said a renowned Lawyer of the High Court of Calcutta who didn't want to be named.

“The SC takes its own call & the HCs take their own except on orders that are binding on a HC concerned. Moreover, this particular order is based on SC’s 2018 Judgment.”

Ex-SC Judge Justice Ashok Ganguly said, ”The high courts are not subordinate to the Supreme Court. The SC is just an appellate forum of the HCs. HCs can take decisions independently.”

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