Will have own platform to live-stream proceedings: Supreme Court

On August 26, for the first time since its inception, the Supreme Court live-streamed proceedings of a bench headed by N.V. Ramana through a webcast portal

The Supreme Court on Monday said it will have its own “platform” to live-stream its proceedings and the use of YouTube for the purpose is temporary.

A bench headed by Chief Justice Uday Umesh Lalit said this when former BJP leader K.N. Govindacharya's counsel argued that the copyright of apex court proceedings cannot be surrendered to private platforms like YouTube.

“YouTube has clearly sought the copyright over the webcast,” lawyer Virag Gupta told the bench that also comprised Justices S. Ravindra Bhat and J.B. Pardiwala.

“These are the initial stages. We will certainly have our own platforms...We will take care of that (copyright issue),” the CJI said and listed Mr. Govindacharya's interim plea for hearing on October 17.

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Referring to a 2018 judgement, the lawyer said it was held that “the copyright over all the material recorded and broadcast in this court shall vest with this court only”.

The lawyer also referred to the terms of use of YouTube and said this private platform also gets the copyright.