In a first, Supreme Court LIVE-streams hearings for the public

New Delhi,Sep 27: The Supreme Court on Tuesday live-streamed its constitution bench proceedings on Tuesday. The top court has three Constitution benches to hear pressing matters of constitutional legislation today. The streaming of three separate constitutional benches is live on webcast.gov.in/scindia/.

The second constitution bench, headed by Justice DY Chandrachud, was hearing the matter pertaining to the Maharashtra political crisis on several petitions filed by both the factions of the Shiv Sena -- led by Uddhav Thackeray and Eknath Shinde.

The Supreme Court had in August referred the case relating to the claim over Shiv Sena to a constitution bench. It framed eight questions related to defection, merger, and disqualification for the larger bench to decide in the battle between Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray on claim over the party.

The third hearing presided by Justice SK Kaul will hear the matter relating to the validity of the All India Bar Examination.

On Monday, a bench headed by Chief Justice of India Uday Umesh Lalit said the top court will soon have its own "platform" to live-stream its proceedings instead of having to use the YouTube.

Exactly four years ago, on September 27, 2018, the then Chief Justice of India (CJI) Dipak Misra, heading a bench had delivered the landmark judgement on live telecast or webcast of important proceedings in matters of constitutional importance, saying sunlight is the best disinfectant. The proceedings can be accessed at webcast.gov.in/scindia/, said an official.

On Monday, the apex court on Monday said it will have its own "platform" to live-stream its proceedings and the use of YouTube for the purpose is temporary.

A bench headed by Chief Justice Uday Umesh Lalit said this when former BJP leader K.N. Govindacharya's counsel argued that the copyright of apex court proceedings cannot be surrendered to private platforms like YouTube.

"YouTube has clearly sought the copyright over the webcast," lawyer Virag Gupta told the bench that also comprised Justices S. Ravindra Bhat and J.B. Pardiwala.

"These are the initial stages. We will certainly have our own platforms...We will take care of that (copyright issue)," the CJI said and listed Mr. Govindacharya's interim plea for hearing on October 17.

Referring to a 2018 judgement, the lawyer said it was held that "the copyright over all the material recorded and broadcast in this court shall vest with this court only".

The lawyer also referred to the terms of use of YouTube and said this private platform also gets the copyright.

The apex court may live-stream proceedings through YouTube and later host them on its server, sources had said. People would be able to access proceedings of the apex court on their cell phones, laptops, and computers without any hassle.

On August 26, for the first time since its inception, the Supreme Court live-streamed proceedings of a bench headed by then Chief Justice (since retired) N.V. Ramana through a webcast portal. It was a ceremonial proceeding as Justice Ramana was to demit office that day.