The Calcutta High Court (HC,) on the 12th of February, passed an order and allowed live streaming a court hearing on YouTube. The hearing would be in relation to a case filed by a Parsi woman.
The Parsi woman filed a petition in the Calcutta HC, seeking permission to let her children enter the Fire Temple, which is the place of worship for the Zoroastrian community. Because the woman married someone outside the community, the authorities of her community banned her from their places of worship and community gatherings.
The petition was filed against the late Ervad Dhunjibhoy Byramjee Mehta’s Zoroastrian Anjuman Atash Adaram Trust and the Parsi Zoroastrian Association of Kolkata, West Bengal.
The appeal for the live streaming of the hearing was made by the Parsi Zoroastrian Association of Kolkata, which was rejected by the Justice of Trial Court Soumen Sen.
However, later, the organisation appealed once again to the division bench. The appeal was accepted by Justices Sanjib Banerjee and Kaushik Chandra.
Phiroze Edulji, the lawyer representing the PZA, said, “The court said as the case will have ramification across India, so it should be streamed live.” He further added, “The single bench had rejected our petition. Today, the division bench said the Parsi Zoroastrian Association, which wants it to be live streamed, will bear the entire cost. The Registrar, Calcutta High Court, Original Side, will regulate it. Two cameras will be installed. And they will be integrated for live streaming on YouTube.”
With this, the Calcutta High Court also referred the case to a single judge bench comprising Debangshu Basak.
This is a one of a kind case where the court proceedings would be streamed live on YouTube in India.
