Madhya Pradesh High Court: In a writ petition filed against the livestreaming of court proceedings, the Division Bench of Sanjeev Sachdeva, CJ., and Vinay Saraf, J., directed the Registry to temporarily stop the livestreaming of all the Benches hearing criminal matters till the next date of hearing.
Background
The petitioner contended that the live streams of the Court proceedings were being misused by several private entities in creating reels, clips, and memes, which were derogatory and wrongfully portrayed the legal fraternity. The petitioner added that shorts, clippings, and videos were made contrary to the rules and uploaded on YouTube, even in respect of criminal proceedings.
Furthermore, the activities were continuing unabated despite the order of the Court in Vijay Bajaj v. Union of India, 2024 SCC OnLine MP 7169, restraining all social media companies, individuals, video makers, media agencies, and general public from editing/morphing or illegally using in any form or sharing Live Streams of the Court Proceedings, which are contrary to Rule 11(b) of Madhya Pradesh Live Streaming and Recording Rules for Court Proceedings, 2021.
Decision
While issuing notice to the respondents, the Court directed that in the meantime, the Registry shall forthwith stop the live streaming of all Benches hearing criminal matters from 15-09-2025 till the next date of the hearing. However, the Registry shall ensure that unrestricted access to the WebEx Link is made available on the website so that any person who wishes to view the proceedings can do so through the same. The Registry shall also ensure that the recording facility through the WebEx Link was not provided to any person who wished to view the proceedings.
[Arihant Tiwari v. Union of India, 2025 SCC OnLine MP 6578, decided on 12-09-2025]
Advocates who appeared in this case:
For the petitioner: Petitioner in person
For the respondent: Dy. Solicitor General S.M. Guru and Advocate Sandeep Shukla
