Chief Justice of India Launches App To Help Media Report Virtual Hearings

Chief Justice of India, Justice N V Ramana, launched a mobile application today to enable journalists to report Supreme Court proceedings without having to visit the court premises during the pandemic..

The virtual event to release the app was attended by Justice A M Khanwilkar and Justice D Y Chandrachud, both of whom recently tested positive for Covid, Justice Hemant Gupta and Secretary General of the Supreme Court Sanjeev S Kalgaonkar.

Justice Ramana appreciated the team that developed the app for completing the task within a week despite many of them being down with Covid.

The Chief Justice of India, who has worked as a journalist in the past, said he is aware of the challenges faced by journalists and the difficulties in reporting virtual hearings during the pandemic. "We are also considering live-streaming of proceedings on trial basis. This will be done after getting consensus from the other judges of the Supreme Court," he said.

Justice Chandrachud said, "I and Justice Khanwilkar are in the process of recovering. I hope this facility will ensure all of you are safe. Journalists are exposed so much to the outside world and this will make your life a little easier. This will be part of many more steps CJI is going to take."

The app will be available to only those journalists who cover Supreme Court proceedings.

Justice Ramana said that between April 27 last year and now, as many as 800 staff of the Supreme Court had tested positive for Covid and three of them had died.

He added that 2,768 judicial officers across the country and 106 judges of High Courts had tested positive for the infection since the pandemic began.