While hearing a writ plea filed by four journalists seeking media access to Court's Proceedings, the Madhya Pradesh High Court today orally observed that that the High Court administration has decided to "give you, what you (Journalists) wanted".
According to LiveLaw, the court however cautioned that reporting of Court proceedings should continue to be accurate and responsible and that the exceptions as provided under the Swapnil Tripathi case should be taken care of.
It may be noted that the legal journalists, Nupur Thapliyal (Legal Correspondent, Live Law), Sparsh Upadhyay (Special Legal Correspondent, Live Law), Areeb Uddin Ahmed (Legal Correspondent, Bar, and Bench), and Rahul Dubey (Legal Correspondent, Dainik Bhaskar) had moved a petition challenging the MP Video Conferencing & Audio-Visual Electronic Linkage Rules, 2020 to the extent they preclude 'third parties' from accessing virtual court proceedings and cause difficulty to media persons in real-time reporting on a public forum for citizens.
The Registrar General, High Court had yesterday filed an Affidavit stating that the E-Committee has decided to provide joining links on the website for the media to access the proceedings publicly of any matter being heard by the High Court through video conferencing.
The High Court Administration has also informed the Judicial side that the Rules pertaining to the live streaming and access to proceedings are being framed and therefore the said serves the purpose of the writ petition for the time being.
Yesterday, the Madhya Pradesh High Court administration had submitted by way of an affidavit that they have decided that it will start providing the web links on its website so that the same could be accessed and court proceedings could be viewed which are currently being held via video conferencing mode.
Today, during the hearing of the petition, the Court observed: "There are no two opinions about your right to access the proceedings and we were about to pronounce an interim order which we reserved on the last date. Since the E-Committee took the aforesaid decision and the said was brought on record on behalf of the High Court establishment, therefore we fixed the matter for hearing today. We think your interests are being served and it is appropriate to dispose of the whole matter with the reliefs sought being granted to your clients. We are also grateful for the assistance you have provided throughout to the Court."
