Supreme Court To Hear Plea Protecting Copyright Of Live-Streamed Hearings

The Supreme Court on Monday agreed to hear a plea seeking direction for a special arrangement with YouTube for safeguarding the copyright over its live-streamed proceedings.

A bench comprising Chief Justice U U Lalit and Justice Bela M Trivedi observed that the court has taken steps for live streaming of the proceedings of its Constitution benches and it has also been decided that its scope can be expanded, having learned from this experience.

"We had to break the ice somewhere. Therefore, we started with the Constitution benches," the court observed.

It issued notices on an interim application filed by former Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) ideologue K N Govindacharya and sought responses from the court's secretary general and others.

The bench posted the matter for hearing on November 28.

Advocate Virag Gupta, appearing for Govindacharya, said the petitioner supports the live streaming of the proceedings but it has to be done in accordance with the top court judgment on the issue.

"That is all right. We have taken steps for live streaming of the proceedings, initially with the Constitution benches, and it can then be translated further for a three-judge combination," the bench observed.

Mr Gupta argued that the copyright over the live-streamed proceedings cannot be surrendered and the top court's data can neither be monetised nor used commercially.

"We are well aware of that," the CJI observed, adding, "If we were to go by this process that you are saying that first change the rule, first do that, first do this etc., then, perhaps, I think we would not have been able to take steps in that direction." "What you are suggesting is of course good. We are cognisant of that. We are not oblivious to it. We are taking steps," the bench said.

Gupta then referred to the prayer in the application, which said "direct for a special agreement with YouTube for safeguarding the copyright over live streaming and archived judicial proceedings" in accordance with the directions in the judgment delivered earlier by the top court.

"Recently, a full court of the Supreme Court took a decision to start live streaming of the proceedings before the Constitution benches. It was also decided that the scope of live streaming can thereafter be expanded, having learned from the experience of live streaming of proceedings before the Constitution benches," the bench said.

On September 27, the top court, for the first time, started to live-stream its Constitution bench proceedings related to the hearing of pleas challenging the reservation for the Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) and a row over control of services between the Centre and the Delhi government.

Mr Gupta had, on September 26, mentioned the plea for urgent listing.

He had referred to the terms of use of YouTube and said the private platform also gets the copyright of the proceedings if those are webcast on it.

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

In a unanimous decision taken at a full court meeting headed by the CJI, the top court had decided to live-stream the proceedings of all Constitution bench hearings from September 27, four years after the pathbreaking judgment on it by Justice Dipak Misra, the then CJI, in 2018.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)