Kerala High Court live-streams hearing on YouTube for first time

Kerala: The Kerala High Court on Saturday live-streamed its proceedings on YouTube for the very first time. The court held a special sitting on Saturday to hear a batch of petitions challenging the constitutional validity of the notification issued by the Travancore Devaswom Board inviting applications for the post of chief priests in Sabarimala and Malikappuram Temples. The move came after the request made by Sijith TL, one of the petitioners in the case before the Chief Justice of the Kerala High Court. The special sitting of a Division Bench consisting of Justice Anil K Narendran and Justice PG Ajithkumar was streamed live on YouTube.

Sijith TL filed this writ petition along with Vijeesh PR who are qualified Priests/Archakas as per the notification issued by the Travancore Devaswom Board except the condition that the applicant shall belong to Malayal Brahmin born in Kerala.

The notification issued by the Travancore Devaswom Board is being challenged in the writ petition filed by the petitioners on the ground that it is violative of their fundamental right guaranteed under Articles 14, 15(1) and 16 (2) of the Constitution of India. The writ petition was filed through Advocate TR Rajesh.

The Court posted the matter to December 17th for further hearing. Notably, this will be a special sitting and also be streamed live on youtube as per the petitioner's request.