In a First In Country, Gujarat Starts Live Streaming Of Proceedings Of All Principal District Judges

In a first of its kind in the Country, the Gujarat High Court has launched a pilot implementation of live streaming and recording of Court proceedings of 33 Principal District Judges Courts of the State.

The Court proceedings would now be live-streamed on the official YouTube channel of the respective District Courts created under the main YouTube channel of the Gujarat High Court.

Along with it, Judicial Officer’s Portal has also been launched which has the functionalities of making all the communications paperless that was done between the judicial officer and the registry of the High Court relating to their leave application, Annual Confidential Reports, Property intimation of purchase and sale, etc. and also the Annual Property Returns.

Supreme Court Judges, Justice MR Shah and Justice J. B. Pardiwala were the guests of honour at an event yesterday for the launch of the YouTube Channels and the Judicial Officer’s Portal virtually.

Justice Shah said during the event that with this pilot implementation of live streaming of district courts,"nobody can bluff" saying that their matter was not called, as everything will now be recorded.

Justice JB Pardiwala and Justice MR Shah congratulated the dignitaries of the Gujarat High Court and the staff involved, for successfully implementing the pilot project of live streaming and for having moved ahead to e-mode of working while they function as the guardian administrative judges of different judicial districts of the State.

Justice JB Pardiwala and Justice MR Shah appreciated the initiative of ‘JO’ portal and said that the portal would not only facilitate submission of leave applications in e-mode but would make the approvals faster and also maintain the legal history and leave records of all the judicial officers.

Justice Sonia G. Gokani, Gujarat High Court in her welcoming address said that “it is a time where the technological advancement would come as a panacea to many operations. This is a very joyous occasion where we are entering an era of transparency and openness for serving the larger cause of Justice by strengthening the litigant-centric system through this process of live streaming.”

Chief Justice of Gujarat High Court, Justice Aravind Kumar said that "the Gujarat High Court had been a pioneer in the implementation of the mandate of the judgment of the Supreme Court of India given in Swapnil Tripathi's case which paved the way for introduction of such transparency measures in the Justice delivery system."

“The live streaming of court proceedings would not remain the forte of constitutional courts but would also reach to the masses of litigants of the justice delivery system at the district court level. The huge impetus to the open court concept and furtherance of transparency standard that would be brought about by the historic initiative by the High Court of Gujarat could surely imbibe a sense of deep satisfaction amongst the stakeholders of the district Judiciary.” said the Chief Justice.

Chief Justice further said that the Judicial Officers Portal would be a path-breaking initiative in the area of judicial administration relating to the service and career of Judicial Officers.

The Gujarat High Court has successfully created yet another milestone in the arena of live streaming of court proceedings and the Judicial Officers portal has also been a very big step on the path of transparency and eco-friendliness.