Should Judicial Hearings Be Live Streamed? Supreme Court Senior Advocate Harish Salve Weighs In

In a candid interview with Republic Media Network’s Editor-in-Chief Arnab Goswami on the show ‘Legends’, Padma Bhushan Harish Salve, King’s Counsel, UK, Former Solicitor General of India, and Supreme Court Senior Advocate, discussed one of the most debated questions in India’s justice system today,  should judicial hearings be live-streamed?

Responding to Goswami’s question on whether courts in India are comfortable with public opinion, Salve highlighted the delicate relationship between judiciary and public perception.
“You must remember, the Supreme Court commands neither the sword nor the purse. It has no armies, it has no treasury. The Supreme Court has only one source of its strength,  public opinion,” Salve said.

He emphasized that public faith remains the foundation of judicial authority, not executive or financial power.
 

Public Faith as the Judiciary’s True Strength
Salve expressed concern about the shifting dynamics of how people perceive the judiciary today.
“Today, that is what worries me the most,” he said, adding that in earlier times, even powerful leaders like Mrs Gandhi “dared not disobey the court.”
Salve reflected on the moral authority courts once commanded.

“Why was it that a politician dare not disobey the court? Because they were afraid the people of India will rise. People of India feel these are our courts, this is our Constitution, this is how the system should work,” he noted.
 

According to him, the judiciary’s power, in India or anywhere in the world, is built entirely upon “the public faith in the judiciary.”

Advice for Young Lawyers
Concluding the conversation, Harish Salve shared a personal piece of advice for the next generation of lawyers.
“A lawyer should never judge himself or herself by the result of a case. If you want to improve in life, always be your own most trenchant critic. It keeps the ego down,” he said.

Salve’s reflections come amid ongoing debates over live-streaming court proceedings in India,  a move seen by many as a step toward greater transparency but also one that raises concerns about sensationalism and public pressure on the judiciary.
 

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