e-committee
The union government will urge the Supreme Court’s e-committee to allow audio-visual (AV) recording of Supreme Court proceedings to “usher transparency as it would discourage witnesses from retracting their statements” and to prevent “unwarranted delay in trials (through re-recording of witness testimony)”, reported the PTI.
The law ministry cited law commission chairman justice AP Shah’s pilot project of recording court proceedings in district courts, to request the e-committee to reconsider the AV recording proposal it had rejected last year.
AV recording of court proceedings was in the agenda of the Aam Aadmi Party during its short-lived tenure forming the Delhi government in February 2014, but does not find a place in the agenda of the party currently as it forms the Delhi government for the second-time.
53-year-old businessman-turned-lawyer Deepak Khosla who has been fighting to allow AV recording in courtrooms for years now had a win of sorts in the Calcutta high court in June when the court’s registrar allowed recording his proceedings with Khaitan & Co.
Calcutta high court Justice Aniruddha Bose made history this July as probably the first high court chamber to install a permanent video camera and a microphone on the request of Khosla.