The Madhya Pradesh High Court (HC) has suspended live streaming of all criminal proceedings after finding that people continue to misuse courtroom footage by turning it into memes, reels, and short video clips. The Court passed this order on September 12, 2025, and directed that the suspension take effect from today.
A Division Bench led by Chief Justice Sanjeev Sachdeva and Justice Vinay Saraf ordered the Registry to immediately stop live streaming of criminal proceedings across all benches. However, the judges instructed the Registry to keep proceedings accessible to the public through unrestricted Webex links posted on the High Court’s website. The Court further directed the Registry to disable any option that would allow people to record or download proceedings from those links.
The judges scheduled the next hearing for September 25, 2025. They also linked this matter with Dr. Vijay Bajaj v. Union of India, a case decided in November 2024 that dealt with similar misuse of live-streamed hearings.
What Did the Petitioner Argue?
Petitioner Arihant Tiwari appeared in person and told the Court that misuse of live-streamed proceedings has continued despite earlier orders. He explained that private entities and individuals have been capturing official live streams and editing them into short clips that circulate widely on YouTube and Instagram. He said these clips misrepresent the judiciary and portray lawyers and judges in derogatory ways.
Tiwari reminded the Court that it had already addressed this issue in the Bajaj case. On November 4, 2024, the High Court restrained Meta Platforms, YouTube, X (Previously Twitter), video makers, media agencies, and members of the public from editing, morphing, or sharing courtroom footage. The Court issued that order because such acts violated the Madhya Pradesh Live Streaming and Recording Rules for Court Proceedings, 2021. He specifically highlighted Rule 11(b) of those Rules. Despite that earlier order, Tiwari argued, the misuse has continued “unabated”, particularly in relation to criminal cases.
What Does Rule 11 of the MP Live Streaming Rules Say?
The Madhya Pradesh HC introduced the Live Streaming and Recording Rules in 2021 to promote transparency and access to justice. However, the same rules also impose strict limits on how people may use courtroom footage.
Rule 11 sets out disclaimers, prohibitions, and restrictions. It requires the Court to include a disclaimer in its daily cause list that proceedings are being live-streamed. It also declares that archived videos do not constitute the official court record unless a judge directs otherwise. Moreover, the rule authorises only designated persons to record, share, reproduce, upload, or edit streams or archival data. When the Court provides authorised recordings, it permits their use only in original form for news, training, or education and bars any commercial, promotional, or advertising use.
The rule further…
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