NEW DELHI: A day after the Supreme Court ordered day-to-day hearing in the Ayodhya land dispute from August 6, former RSS ideologue KN Govindacharya has filed a petition in the Supreme Court seeking live streaming of the proceedings in the case.
Govindacharya, in his petition, stated that since the court had already passed the judgment in which it had allowed the live streaming of cases of Constitutional importance that take place in the court of the Chief Justice of India, streaming of the Ayodhya case is important.
Contending that the Ram Mandir-Babri Majid case has created a large-scale interest across India, he contended that crores of people would be interested in witnessing the proceedings but might not be able to do so due to the norms in the court.
Govindacharya has contended that the absence of live streaming of court proceedings is a denial of the right to access justice under Article 21 of the Constitution.
The top court is hearing petitions challenging a 2010 Allahabad High Court order that trifurcated the 2.77-acre-site between the Nirmohi Akhara, the Sunni Central Waqf Board, and Ram Lalla. Last year, it allowed live streaming with an aim to have greater transparency in the judicial system.
The top court had then directed the Centre to frame rules and said the project will be carried out in phases. Except for India, other countries such as Canada, Australia, the UK, New Zealand, South Africa, the European Court of Human Rights and the International Criminal Court permit recordings of court proceedings.