Bombay High Court: secretly recording live-streamed court proceedings can amount to contempt

Acting on its own motion after a man was seen secretly video-recording live court proceedings on his phone during a hearing on 5 October 2026, the Bombay High Court (Justices G. S. Kulkarni and Dr. Neela Gokhale) held that unauthorised recording of live-streamed proceedings can attract criminal contempt, besides offences under the Copyright Act, 1957 and the Information Technology Act, 2000. The man, Vilas Shamrao Wagh, initially gave a false name when confronted; his phone was seized, and a recording he had tried to delete was retrieved from its deleted-items folder.

The Court held that the High Court's own Rules on Live-Streaming and Recording of Court Proceedings expressly bar recording or disseminating live-streamed hearings without permission, and surveyed similar rulings from the Punjab and Haryana, Delhi and Rajasthan High Courts treating unauthorised recording as potential criminal contempt. Accepting Wagh's unconditional apology, the Court did not initiate contempt proceedings this time, but directed that his phone's recording be permanently deleted, ordered him to deposit Rs. 10,000 with the High Court Legal Services Committee, and warned that any repetition would invite contempt action.