The Karnataka High Court has held that archived recordings of court proceedings cannot be claimed as a matter of right and may be accessed only when specifically ordered by the Court under the Karnataka Rules on Live Streaming and Recording of Court Proceedings, 2021.
Justice C.M. Poonacha dismissed a writ petition challenging the rejection of his application seeking audio-visual recordings of proceedings in a writ appeal. The application had been rejected by the High Court administration under Rule 10(1)(ii) of the 2021 Rules, which provides that archival data shall not constitute the official record of court proceedings unless otherwise directed by the Bench.
The petitioner contended that his application, submitted in Form III under Rule 8(3), ought to have been granted. However, the Court, on a combined reading of Rules 8 and 10, held that the provisions do not confer a right to obtain copies of archived recordings unless the Court specifically orders their release.
Finding no vested right in the petitioner to access the recordings, the Court held that the challenge to the administrative rejection could not be sustained and dismissed the writ petition as devoid of merit.
