Supreme Court Bars Unauthorised Recording and Monetisation of Court Videos on Social Media

Friday, 24 July 20262 min read1

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Polity & GovernanceDeep Analysis

Why This Matters

On July 24, 2026, a Supreme Court bench comprising Chief Justice of India Surya Kant, Justice Joymalya Bagchi and Justice V Mohana passed an interim order prohibiting the extraction, modification, dissemination, posting, re-posting, uploading, or monetisation of audio and video recordings of judicial proceedings on social media or other digital platforms without prior permission from the Registrar General of the concerned High Court or the Secretary General of the Supreme Court. For aspirants preparing for UPSC, UPPSC, MPSC, and other state PSC exams, this topic is directly relevant for GS Paper 2 (Indian Judiciary - structure, organisation, and functioning) and frequently appears as a source-based question on open justice and judicial governance.

The order came while the Court was hearing a public interest litigation filed by journalist Harshita Grover, seeking guidelines to regulate the clipping, editing, and monetisation of audiovisual recordings of court proceedings circulating on digital platforms; the bench clarified that the interim restriction would not affect fair news reporting of judicial proceedings, distinguishing legitimate journalism from the unauthorised commercial exploitation of court footage.

Background

Live-streaming and public access to court proceedings in India trace back to the Supreme Court's 2018 judgment in Swapnil Tripathi v. Supreme Court of India, which recognised live-streaming of court proceedings as an extension of the open-court principle and the public's right to access justice under Article 21, leading to the gradual rollout of official live-streaming for constitutional-bench and other significant hearings by the Supreme Court and several High Courts.

However, the rise of short-form social media content has led to widespread unauthorised clipping, editing, and often out-of-context circulation of these livestreamed proceedings - including monetised YouTube and social media channels built around viral court-hearing clips - prompting concerns that such use undermines the dignity and integrity of judicial proceedings even as the underlying live-streaming itself remains a valued transparency reform.

Key Points

Order Details

Passed on July 24, 2026, by a bench of CJI Surya Kant, Justice Joymalya Bagchi and Justice V Mohana.
An interim order, pending final disposal of the underlying PIL.

What Is Barred

Extraction, modification, dissemination, posting, re-posting, or uploading of court-hearing audio/video without permission.
Monetisation of such recordings on social media or other digital platforms.

Permission Authority

Prior permission required from the Registrar General of the concerned High Court.
Or from the Secretary General of the Supreme Court for SC proceedings.

PIL Background

Filed by journalist Harshita Grover.
Sought guidelines to regulate clipping, editing, and monetisation of court-proceeding recordings.

Safeguard for Journalism

The order explicitly does not affect fair news reporting of judicial proceedings.
Directions to be published on the official websites of the Supreme Court and all High Courts.
Syllabus relevance: UPSC GS Paper 2 - Indian Judiciary, Open Justice, Governance; state PSC prelims under Polity; mains under Judiciary and Judicial Reforms.

Analysis

Political and Constitutional Dimensions The order draws on the Supreme Court's power under Article 145 to make rules regulating its own practice and procedure, and reflects a balancing exercise between the open-court principle recognised under Article 21 in Swapnil Tripathi and the Court's inherent authority as a "court of record" under Article 129 to protect the dignity and integrity of its proceedings from misuse.

Economic and Financial Dimensions By specifically barring "monetisation," the order targets the commercial incentive structure behind channels that repackage court-hearing clips for advertising revenue, without banning the underlying livestreams themselves, an approach that distinguishes between public-interest access and profit-driven exploitation of judicial content.

Social Dimensions Unregulated viral court clips have increasingly been criticised for distorting public perception of judicial proceedings by presenting selectively edited, sensationalised fragments out of context, and the Court's intervention responds to a broader social concern about misinformation and the erosion of nuanced public understanding of legal processes.

Governance and Administrative Dimensions Operationalising the order will require High Courts and the Supreme Court Secretary General's office to build a functioning permission-granting mechanism, raising practical governance questions about response timelines and criteria for approving or denying such requests, especially for legitimate journalistic and academic uses.

International Perspective Jurisdictions worldwide, including the United States and United Kingdom, have wrestled with similar tensions between courtroom-broadcast transparency and the risk of sensationalised misuse, and India's approach - permitting transparency through official livestreaming while restricting unauthorised commercial re-use - offers a middle path increasingly referenced in comparative judicial-transparency discussions.

Way Forward

The Supreme Court and High Courts should publish clear, time-bound procedures for processing permission requests to use court-hearing footage, to avoid the order becoming a de facto blanket ban through administrative delay.
A clear, published distinction between "fair news reporting" and prohibited "monetisation" should be developed to reduce ambiguity for journalists and content creators.
The final disposal of the underlying PIL should consider proportionate penalties for violations rather than uniformly severe sanctions, distinguishing inadvertent from wilful, large-scale misuse.
Courts should continue to expand official live-streaming access even as they restrict unauthorised re-use, to preserve the underlying transparency gains from Swapnil Tripathi.
Digital platforms hosting court-clip content should be given clear takedown-request protocols to support enforcement of the order.
Legal awareness campaigns should educate the public on the distinction between accessing official livestreams and unauthorised commercial re-use.
Practice on PSCPrep: Attempt previous year questions on the Indian judiciary and governance for free - search 'supreme court open justice current affairs' in the PYQ section at PSCPrep to practise UPSC and state PSC questions on this topic without creating an account.

What can be asked in exam?

•Prelims angle: factual question on key term, scheme, or institution mentioned in this article.
•Mains angle: short analytical answer on policy impact, challenges, and way forward.

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