Case:- Arihant Tiwari And Others vs. Union of India And Others
Citation:- WP No. 36619 of 2025
Date:- 12.09.2025
Madhya Pradesh High Court Bench:- CHIEF JUSTICE SANJEEV SACHDEVA & JUSTICE VINAY SARAF
The Hon’ble Madhya Pradesh High Court directed its Registry to stop the live streaming of all Benches hearing criminal matters until the next date of hearing in a PIL claiming misuse of live-streamed court proceedings via reels and memes.
- The decision came while hearing a PIL (Public Interest Litigation) that claimed live-streamed proceedings were being misused by private individuals and pages.
- According to the PIL, people were taking clips from the live streams to make reels, memes, and short videos that mocked the legal profession and spread them online.
- The Hon’ble Court clarified that the hearings will still be accessible to the public through an unrestricted Webex link, but no one will be allowed to record the proceedings.
- The petitioner also referred to the case Vijay Bajaj v. Union of India, where the court had earlier banned the editing, morphing, or misuse of live-streamed content under the Madhya Pradesh Live Streaming and Recording Rules, 2021 (Rule 11(b)).
- Despite these safeguards, short clips of criminal proceedings were still being uploaded on YouTube and other platforms, violating the rules.
The case will now be heard further on September 25.
