BENGALURU: The Advocates’ Association of Bengaluru has appealed to Chief Justice of Karnataka High Court NV Anjaria to issue an order to stop live streaming of court proceedings for a few days.
Office-bearers of the association led by its president Vivek Subba Reddy wrote to Justice Anjaria on Friday, a few hours after the Supreme Court took suo motu cognisance of the alleged objectionable remarks by Justice V Srishananda of the high court during court proceedings and sought a report from the registrar general.
“Justice Srishananda’s remarks led to a controversy after they went viral. Besides, the remarks hurt the sentiments of advocates, both young and old. Even advocates have been made an object of censure in some statements,” Reddy stated in the letter. Many advocates faced inconvenience because of the video clippings of the court proceedings on YouTube and other social media. They projected lawyers in a poor light.
The recent remarks against a woman advocate bring to focus the larger issue of treatment of young members of the bar, particularly women, by judges, Reddy said.
Until guidelines on views that could be aired in open courts are framed, live streaming of proceedings should be stopped. Otherwise, the situation would worsen and the judiciary’s image would take a beating, Reddy said and expressed the hope that action would be taken in this regard at the earliest. “We are glad that the Supreme Court is keen on framing guidelines in this area,” he said.