Collecting procedures of other State Legislative Assemblies on live telecast: T.N. Assembly secretariat tells Madras High Court

Tamil Nadu Assembly considers live streaming procedures from other states, decision pending, court grants time for progress.

The Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly secretariat has informed the Madras High Court that it has begun to collect details about procedures adopted by the Legislative Assemblies in other States with respect to live telecasting or streaming of the proceedings of the House.

Appearing before the first Division Bench of Chief Justice Sanjay V. Gangapurwala and Justice D. Bharatha Chakravarthy, Advocate General P.S. Raman said officials in Tamil Nadu had so far received responses from about six to seven States, and the rest were awaited.

After collection of comprehensive details from a few more States, a final policy decision would be taken on live telecasting or streaming the proceedings of the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly, the A-G said. The judges recorded his submission and granted time till April 16 to report progress.

The submissions were made in response to a 2015 writ petition filed by Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam (DMDK) former leader A. Vijayakant, who died recently, and a 2023 writ petition by the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) chief whip S.P. Velumani, insisting upon live telecasts of Assembly proceedings.

During the previous hearing of the case, the judges had suggested that the entire proceedings could be telecasted with a time lag of five to 10 minutes if the Assembly secretariat was particularly about remarks that could be expunged from the records by the Speaker, not getting aired live.

They had also questioned the government as to why there was so much hesitation on airing the entire Legislative Assembly proceedings live when the Parliament proceedings were being telecasted live without much ado.