Bombay High Court: secretly recording court proceedings on a phone can amount to contempt

Acting on its own motion, a Division Bench of the Bombay High Court (Justices G.S. Kulkarni and Dr. Neela Gokhale) dealt with a man found video-recording court proceedings on his mobile phone without permission, who then tried to delete the recording before it was retrieved by the court's IT department. The Court held that, apart from written permission, there is an express bar on recording court proceedings under the High Court's Rules governing Live-Streaming and Recording of Court Proceedings, and that unauthorised recording, sharing or dissemination of proceedings can attract prosecution under the Copyright Act, 1957, the Information Technology Act, 2000, and the law of contempt. It surveyed decisions of the Punjab and Haryana, Delhi, Karnataka and Rajasthan High Courts holding that videotaping or photographing court proceedings without prior written permission amounts to contempt of court, since it interferes with the administration of justice.

The Bench noted that while courtrooms remain open to the public, anyone attending must still follow the applicable rules. Accepting the respondent's apology — though not unconditionally — it ordered his phone's data erased and the device then disposed of, directed him to pay Rs. 10,000 to the High Court Legal Services Authority within two weeks, and warned that any repetition would invite contempt proceedings under the Contempt of Courts Act, 1971.