Advocates’ group moves Karnataka HC seeking to restrain public, social media from using court videos

The Advocates Association Bengaluru on Monday moved the Karnataka High Court demanding that social media users, media agencies and the public be restrained from using live stream videos of court proceedings, Live Law reported.

The association has also sought directives to platforms such as YouTube, Facebook and X to immediately delete videos and clips that have been created using live streams of court proceedings.

This came after two video clips showing High Court Justice V Srishananda making controversial comments during two separate hearings were widely shared online in recent days.

In this backdrop, the advocates’ group sought directions from the Union government to authorities to take criminal action against persons and entities allegedly misusing court videos, Live Law reported.

The association contended in its petition that videos of court proceedings have given the public the scope to criticise the judiciary and advocates in an unwarranted manner.

The advocates’ group also claimed that the videos were hurting young professionals in the field. “The young budding lawyers are becoming conscious of the fact that they may be trolled for their submission/arguments and thus creating a great threat to the profession at large especially when we are facing a shortage of good and efficient litigating lawyers,” Live Law quoted the petition as saying.

Judge’s remarks

At one of the hearings, Srishananda was heard referring to the Muslim-dominated locality of...

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