Referring to the opinion of a coordinate bench on the matter, the Bombay high court recently dismissed a petition requesting the court to declare right to information as an integral part of the right to life and seeking video recordings of proceedings in all courts of the country, claiming it to be the fundamental right of a citizen to know judicial procedures and occurrences during hearing of cases.

Chief Justice Dr Manjula Chellur and Justice Mahesh Sonak dismissed the petition filed by Navneet Khosla on the basis that another bench of the high court had earlier rejected two other petitions seeking similar relief.

The bench pointed out a paragraph of the order passed by another bench in January this year which said that though the court did not advocate any absolute or blanket ban (on video recordings of court proceedings), it also did not support proposals for absolute and compulsory recordings of court proceedings. “We most resolutely do not approve of any ‘live’ telecasts,” read the paragraph of the January order.

“These are courts, not stages and sets and props from The Truman Show. This is a judicial proceeding of the utmost solemnity, not The Hunger Games,” it read.

Referring to this judgment, the bench headed by the Chief Justice said, “The observations are quite clear. On the basis of the same, it cannot be said that the petitioner has made out any case for grant of any of the reliefs prayed for by him in this petition.”

“For the aforesaid reasons, we dismiss this petition. On this occasion however, there shall be no order for payment of costs,” ruled the bench on October 6 while dismissing the petition filed by Khosla.