ISLAMABAD - The Supreme Court of Pakistan Tuesday turned down Justice Qazi Faez Isa’s application for live streaming of the proceedings of his review petition against the SC judgment on Presidential Reference.

The petition has been rejected with majority of 6 against 4 of the ten-member bench.

The apex court bench headed by Justice Umar Ata Bandial and comprising Justice Maqbool Baqar, Justice Manzoor Ahmed Malik, Justice Mazhar Alam Khan Miankhel, Justice Sajjad Ali Shah, Justice Mansoor Ali Shah, Justice Yahya Afridi and Justice Qazi Muhammad Amin Ahmed and Justice Amin-ud-Din Khan announced the order, which it had reserved on March 18.

Justice Bandial, who wrote the majority order, stated that the reasons will be recorded later. The order said that the right of the people to have access to information in matters of public importance under Article 19-A of the Constitution is recognized, the details and modalities of which are to be decided by the Full Court on the administrative side.

Justice Maqbool Baqir, Justice Mazoor Malik, Justice Mazhar Alam Khan Miankhel, and Justice Mansoor Ali Shah disagreed with the majority, while Justice Yahya also dismissed Justice Faez’s application, but stated that the relief sought by the petitioner would “negate the very spirit of the oath taken by the petitioning Judge”. He, however, wrote; “I find the right of the public to have access to live-streaming or audio-video recording, written transcript or any other medium, of the court hearings in the proceedings of public importance, including those under Articles 184(3) and 186 of the Constitution, is their fundamental right under Article 19A of the Constitution.”

He directed the SC Registrar to place the matter before the Full Court for appropriate steps as it deems fit, under Article 191 of the Constitution, to effectuate this fundamental right of the public.

The four judges short order states; “Article 19-A of the Constitution creates an obligation on State institutions, including the judiciary, to take the necessary measures to ensure realization of the fundamental right of citizens to have access to information in matters of public importance.

They added that the cases under Article 184(3) of the Constitution, including review petitions and other matters arising therein, are matters of public importance, and the public has a right to know and see how proceedings in these cases are conducted and concluded by the Court.

They maintained, “We, therefore, hold that live streaming (audio and video) of court hearings of these cases should be made available for information of the public through a link on the official website of this Court, and for this purpose the Registrar of this Court should take steps to provide for the requisite technological infrastructure and make arrangements for necessary amendments in the Rules under Article 191 of the Constitution to regulate its practice and procedure in this regard.”

“Keeping in view the current state of technological infrastructure available in this Court and the fact that the review petitions filed in the case are fixed for hearing, we direct the audio recording of the proceedings of the court hearings of the said review petitions to be made available to the public through a link on the official website of this Court,” said the four judges.

“The Registrar of this Court shall ensure that the un-edited audio recording of the proceedings of the court hearing of the review petitions is made available to the public on the official website of the Court on the same day soon after the hearing and before the close of the working hours,” said the order.