Jabalpur: The Madhya Pradesh High Court, while hearing a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) on Friday, issued a significant interim order. Under this order, the live-streaming of hearings in criminal cases has been temporarily halted, effective Monday, September 15, 2025.
A division bench comprising Chief Justice Sanjeev Sachdeva and Justice Vinay Saraf passed the order in response to a petition which stated that videos of court proceedings were being misused on social media. The petitioner argued that the court’s proceedings were being misrepresented by creating memes, clips, and reels from these videos.
In its order, the court directed the registry to immediately stop the live-streaming from all benches hearing criminal cases until the next hearing. However, the court also directed to ensure that a Webex link is made available on the website for the general public and journalists so they can watch the proceedings, though they will not be provided with a recording facility.
The next hearing in this matter has been scheduled for September 25. This decision is being seen as a significant step towards striking a balance between the transparency of court proceedings and their potential misuse.
