NEW DELHI:The NDA government is set to introduce audio-video recordings of court hearings to enhance transparency in the judicial process. However, India won’t be the first country to record trial proceedings as 45 countries, including the US and the UK, already do so.
The government is in talks with the e-Committee of the Supreme Court to start audio-video recordings of court proceedings not only in the apex court, but in subordinate courts as well. The issue was raised in the meetings of Advisory Council of National Mission for Justice Delivery and Legal Reforms last month, in which the nitty-gritty of the project was discussed at length.
According to the ministry’s proposal, “Allowing such recordings can contribute to transparency of court processes by allowing a precise record of the proceedings and at the same time discouraging improper conduct in courts and wastage of court time. The efficiency of courts can also be enhanced by maintaining standard system generated formats of routine judgments and orders, particularly in civil cases, which may be used by courts for quick delivery of judgments.”
A proposal to include audio-video recordings in phase II of the e-Courts Project was placed before the e-Committee of the Supreme Court by the Ministry of Law and Justice earlier this month.
The phase II of the project was approved by the Union Cabinet last month. In the first phase, the government had computerised all the courts across the country, set up local area networks and connected these courts with the national judicial data grid.
Currently, litigants can access case status information of over 4.76 crore pending and decided cases and approximately one crore orders/judgments in over 13,000 district and subordinate courts.
Online availability of case data imparts transparency to the functioning of courts and facilitates easy access of data to lawyers and litigants.
Apart from bringing in transparency in the judicial process, the other aim of government is to discourage witnesses from retracting their statements as re-recording of witness statements often leads to unwarranted delay in trials and adds to the pendency list.
There are over 3.2 crore cases pending in various Indian courts. Of this, almost 2.8 crore are pending in subordinate courts alone, as per the latest data by Ministry of Law and Justice.
In July, for the first time in the history of Indian judiciary, the Calcutta High Court recorded court room proceedings on a directive by Justice Aniruddha Bose.
Justice Bose’s direction came on persistent pleas by advocate Deepak Khosla, who had been trying to convince the judge to order a video recording so that there is incontrovertible evidence of conduct of the counsel on the other side.
According to Khosla, he was being subjected to constant heckling and abuses inside the court room and recording could prevent diminution of the standing and authority of the court. In 2010, he had also petitioned Delhi High Court to allow audio-video recording of his case but his plea was not accepted.
According to Khosla, video recordings will have a one-time cost of Rs 4 lakh per court, whereas for audio recordings it will be only Rs 50,000.
Camera Courts
Countries that allow audio-video recording in courts
USA
UK
Italy
Sri Lanka
France
Germany
UAE