Day: August 30, 2026

Open Letter dated 24.12.2025 to the CJI:Do not shut down public access VC hearings.

To the Chief Justice of India. Open Letter Sir, I write these few lines while waiting to join the online hearing of a case of mine posted at 3 PM today, before the Chief Justice of Bombay. Now it is 3:08 and I am not admitted.The following words are displayed:“Thanks for waiting. Public viewing of […]

Livestreaming of court proceedings across the High Courts in the country is one by one being abandoned. Access to the virtual hearing to lawyers and litigants, not to speak of the public at large, is denied by almost all Benches of the Bombay High Court. VC hearings are brought to an end in most of the subordinate courts and Tribunals in this country. All these are happening at a time when court proceedings are accessible to the public at large in almost all countries, even in Pakistan; so too when allegations of corruption, favouritism and nepotism have resulted in the public confidence in our justice delivery system touching its nadir. It was in the above backdrop that I addressed an open letter to the CJI. I didn’t get even an acknowledgement for the letter. On the contrary, as if a bolt from the blue, acting on the so-called PIL of Vikas Singh, a 3-judge bench of the Supreme Court banned recording and circulation of the video clips of court proceedings entirely behind the backs of the people of this country. The order of the court is the grossest violation of the freedom of speech and expression, the most sacrosanct of all fundamental rights, which the court is duty bound to zealously protect.