SC to LIVE-STREAM proceedings for 1st time; Maharashtra political crisis, EWS quota hearing today

New Delhi: The Supreme Court's Constitution bench hearings will be live-streamed from Tuesday when it will hear a few important cases including Maharashtra political crisis. The hearing of the Constitution bench proceedings can be watched on the Supreme Court's own platform webcast.gov.in/scindia/.

In a historic move, the Supreme Court decided last week to hold live-streaming of all the Constitution bench hearings from September 27.

Three Constitution benches will sit and hear the cases relating to pleas challenging the Centre`s decision to grant a 10 percent quota for the EWS category in admissions and jobs, the Maharashtra political crisis, and control of administrative services in Delhi.

Also Read: Supreme Court to examine validity of EWS reservations in higher education and employment

A five-judge bench headed by Chief Justice of India UU Lalit will hear pleas challenging the EWS quota case. Justice DY Chandrachud-led bench will hear the petitions filed by both the Uddhav Thackeray-led camp and Eknath Shinde group on the issue of the Maharashtra political crisis.

While a bench headed by Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul will hear the plea of the Delhi government on the contentious issue of who should control administrative services in Delhi over the transfers and postings of officers in the national capital.

Today, CJI said that the Supreme Court will have its own platform to live-stream its proceedings and the use of YouTube is temporary.

"These are the initial stages. We will certainly have our own platforms... We will take care of that (copyright issue)," he said while a lawyer told the apex court that the copyright of the top court proceedings could not be surrendered to private platforms like YouTube.

Last week, a full court, comprising all the judges of the Supreme Court, met and took the decision on the live streaming, sources said.

Currently, the Constitution bench of the Supreme Court has been hearing a number of cases including economically backward class reservation law, the religious practice of ex-communication in the Dawoodi Bohra community, Centre`s petition on additional compensation for victims of the 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy among others.

The cases that the five-judge Constitution bench will hear in near future include challenges to the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), abrogation of Article 370, Maharashtra political crisis etc.

Senior advocate Indira Jaising had also written to the CJI and other judges requesting the Supreme Court to begin live streaming of proceedings of matters of public and constitutional importance.

In 2018 the then CJI Dipak Misra-led three-judge bench had agreed to start a live telecast of proceedings in a phased manner.

For the first time, the Supreme Court in August live-streamed its proceedings through a government webcast portal of a ceremonial bench while giving farewell to outgoing Chief Justice of India NV Ramana