Audio Video recording in Court

It is high time that court proceedings are recorded to avoid any sort of mis-reporting or levelling of false charges against media-persons. The issues assumes significance in view of recent contempt of court notices issued to two reputed English dailies for alleged misreporting. THIS REFERS to the Supreme Court issuing contempt notices on September 20 to two English dailies, The Pioneer and The Indian Express allegedly for misreporting Court proceedings. It is indeed a matter of concern that misreporting of court’s proceedings, deliberately or un-deliberately, may adversely affect the prestige of judiciary. Suggestions for video-recording of courts’ proceedings are being floated for quite some now which is not at all difficult and expensive in present-days’ advanced technology. Steps should be taken for immediate implementation of the much-needed project, at least in Supreme Court and High Courts. Rather there should be a system of audio-recording of complete court proceedings. Copies of these audio-tapes may also be supplied to recognised media subscribers on payment after the court proceedings are over for the day to avoid any chance of misreporting. Such audio-recordings will also provide a justified opportunity to defend mediapersons in case they are slapped with charges of mis-reporting. System will also be advantageous in many other ways including upholding accountability in judicial system.