Karnataka HC suspends live streaming citing 'mischief', 'unprecedented situation'

The Karnataka High Court on Tuesday suspended video conferencing facilities in the principal bench in Bengaluru and the circuit benches at Dharwad and Kalaburagi and also live streaming of proceedings on YouTube following what it called “mischief” and “unprecedented situation”.

Chief Justice Prasanna B Varale made the announcement this morning.

Just before the lunch break on Monday, some persons are believed to have hacked into the video conferencing network and posted mischievous videos.

On Tuesday, Chief Justice Varale said, “Unfortunate situation. We are stopping all the live streaming, video streaming etc, video conferencing. Unfortunately, some mischief is being played by somebody. There may be something at the level of some mischief players or at the level of technology being misused.” He, however, did not elaborate.

The Chief Justice requested the advocates whose cases are listed to inform their colleagues and counterparts about the cancellation and not to rush to the Registrar or the video conference personnel. “This is an unfortunate and unprecedented situation. Otherwise, the Karnataka High Court was always in favour of technology being used for better services for the public at large as well as the learned counsels.

”But for the situation which is unprecedented, we have to take this decision. Please cooperate. This is a request to all the learned counsels to please request your colleagues (as well),” the Chief Justice of the High Court said.