First-ever: Supreme Court starts live transcription of its hearings

The Supreme Court scripted history on Tuesday as it started live transcription of its hearings with the help of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and technology driven by Natural Language Processing.

The live transcription was launched on an experimental basis at 10:30 am in courtroom no. 1, wherein a Constitution Bench headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) D.Y. Chandrachud was hearing the case related to the Constitutional crisis of Maharashtra.

A screen displaying the live transcription of court proceedings was placed in Courtroom 1, facing the lawyers. The Supreme Court would make transcripts of oral arguments available on its website.

The transcription service is being provided by TERES Legal Services, a company which has been providing this facility to arbitration practitioners.

In another first today, the Kerala High Court started publishing some of its judgments in Malayalam.

In another first today, the Kerala High Court started publishing some of its judgments in Malayalam.

Earlier on December 16, the Supreme Court had said that it would look into the suggestions made by Senior Advocate Indira Jaising regarding live streaming of major court cases having national importance.

Appearing in person, the Senior Counsel submitted before the Bench of CJI Chandrachud, Justice P.S. Narasimha and Justice J.B. Pardiwala that live telecast of such cases would increase the access to courts, and ‘negate’ the chances of any misreporting, errors or second-hand information.

Recalling the last order, wherein a suggestion was made to provide links in the cause list, Jaising sought a status report on it.

Regarding transcripts, the Senior Advocate said the idea was dropped. She contended that even the US did not livestream its proceedings, but audio recorded and archived all the proceedings, which were available for later use.  

As per Jaising, issues of national importance such as marital rape exception could be livestreamed.
CJI Chandrachud told the Senior Advocate that on the administrative side, the Apex Court would look into the matter.

He said the Apex Court would consider whether to make available links for livestreaming on the cause list itself, besides making a provision for livestreaming the matters of national importance. As of now, the Supreme Court only livestreams cases of Constitution Benches.

The CJI-led Bench further agreed to consider permitting access to audio transcripts of court proceedings.

While dismissing the plea, the Bench gave liberty to the Senior Counsel to provide a comprehensive note of suggestions to the Secretary General of the Supreme Court.

(Case Title: Indira Jaising vs Secy General And Ors)