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Chief Justice of India, NV Ramana launched a mobile application today for media persons, allowing them to report virtually without much hassle. The event was joined by his brother judges and E-committee members, Justice AM Khanwilkar, Justice DY Chandrachud and Justice Hemant Gupta.

Justice Hemant Gupta while referring to the recent judgment of Justice Chandrachud, which laid emphasis on Media reportage and access to information by the general public, said, "There is a Caveat; You must use it Responsibly"

Justice Chandrachud, reflecting promptness shown by the Hon'ble CJI in giving effect to the proposal, said, "After I mentioned the need of this link to journalists, Chief responded in less than three days. There was no need to impress upon the Chief."

"Institution is paying back by this little gift which I am sure you will cherish in future" added Justice Khanwilkar.

The CJI addressed,

“Transparency is a time-honored principle when it comes to the judicial process in our country. Hearing of cases have always taken place in public courtrooms with access being allowed not only to the lawyers and the litigants in a particular case, but also to the general public. The only restrictions that were ever imposed earlier were because of space and security considerations.”

He further said that, the shift to holding Courts through video conferencing has not been an easy process. Over the past year, everyone has faced various issues while attempting to hold hearings and decide cases.

"One of the issues that arose relates to the difficulties in access to video proceedings by the media. Earlier, some provision was made to allow the media to watch proceedings at specific locations. However, due to certain difficulties and issues, many persons in the media had sent me requests to make changes to the system to enable them to observe Court proceedings more conveniently. I requested my brother judges in the Supreme Court E-Committee, the Secretary General, Registrars and the technicians to come up with a solution."

He also thanked the technical team deployed for the development of the mobile application and told that the team faced many challenges.

"The Secretary General, the Registrar (Computer) Mr. Rajiv Kalra, Senior Technical Director Mr. Manoj Tuli, Technical Director Mr. Pardeep Nanda and the programmer Mr. Sanjeev were down with COVID. Still, the team worked from home and came out with this feature within 7 days. Their commitment to their duty deserves special appreciation. It is through all their efforts that today we are able to release this application, which is a platform for media persons to allow them to view proceedings live on the mobile phones.”

The CJI also highlighted another feature called “Indicative Notes”, aimed at providing concise summaries of landmark judgments in an easy-to-understand format. He further thanked his predecessor, Chief Justice SA Bobde for initiating this process. He further showed his desire to appoint a senior officer to be a single point of contact between the Supreme Court and the media.

“This pandemic has affected everyone. With great pain and agony, I must state certain facts.  The first employee of the Supreme Court Registry was reported COVID positive on 27^th April 2020. Till date, approximately 800 Registry staff have tested positive. Six of our Registrars and 10 Additional Registrars have tested positive at different times. Unfortunately, we lost three of our officials to COVID.”

The CJI further mentioned that so far as the Indian judiciary is concerned, as per the data available, 2768 judicial officers and 106 Judges of the High Courts have tested positive. 34 Judicial Officers and three Judges of the High Courts have lost their life, battling this pandemic.

“My heart goes out to the families and the loved ones of those whose life has been cut short by this pandemic.”

“With these words, I launch the special facility for granting access to media on the Supreme Court Application and also the new link for “Indicative Notes”. I expect the media to use these resources responsibly to disseminate information to the general public for the welfare of society.” 

In the end the Chief Secretary announced that,

“Supreme Court Journalist App will be available on Google play store, on numbers which are registered with the registry. Step by Step guide will be provided. We all are with you. Stay safe, Stay healthy and Stay at home.”