Yesterday, the Chief Justice of India, DY Chandrachud said, Online streaming of proceedings has taken the Supreme Court to the hearts and homes of common citizens of the country.

As he announced the latest initiative of the Supreme Court to make live-streaming content available simultaneously in regional languages too.

Currently, transcripts of the Constitution bench hearings are prepared only in the English language. 

Talking about Same-sex marriage,  CJI said that the Supreme Court administration is working on a module so that transcripts of the hearings can be prepared simultaneously in various regional languages to help people from all parts of the country understand the proceedings without language barriers.

The statement by the CJI came after senior counsel Rakesh Dwivedi, appearing for the Madhya Pradesh government in the matter, mentioned that live-streaming the same-sex marriage proceedings has brought about churning in society and people in different corners of the country are talking about the issue.

Agreeing with Dwivedi, CJI Chandrachud said, “Live-streaming of court proceedings has really taken our courts to the homes and hearts of the common citizens. And that’s how it should be because that’s part of the process.”

To this, Justice Dwivedi mentioned the difficulties faced by those who do not understand English, which is the official language of conducting proceedings in the Supreme Court. “All debates happen in English in the Supreme Court and people living in villages or small towns cannot not understand and follow the same. Language problem in India is complex,” he lamented.

“You will be surprised (to know) that we are working even on that Mr Dwivedi. Even that is not lost to the Supreme Court on the administrative side. We are working on it...we are trying to use technology to ensure that live-streaming content can be simultaneously made available in other languages too,” said CJI.