Team News Riveting
Ambikapur, March 15
Taking a big leap forward towards transparency, the Surguja district collector in Chhattisgarh on Thursday began live streaming of his court proceedings.
It is the maiden initiative taken by the district administration in Chhattisgarh. The court of district collector normally deals with cases related to land and revenue departments.
Bhoskar Vilas Sandeepan, an Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer of 2011 batch and newly appointed collector of tribal-predominated Surguja district, executed the plan to conduct the proceedings under camera glare. “I was posted in the tribal-dominated district in January this year. Several people come to me with grievances such as they were not made a party in the case, they were unaware about the hearings and their lawyer did not argue properly in their favour.”
Even people serving in the paramilitary forces and army could not attend hearings, while some people had handed over the power of attorney of their cases to others citing health reasons but wanted to know details of the hearings, he said, adding that tribals living in remote areas were also reluctant to attend every hearing. “To address all these issues, the decision was taken to live-stream proceedings to ensure transparency and access to people,” Sandeepan said.
The link to watch the proceedings live will be available on the district administration’s website, and it can also be watched on the administration’s YouTube channel. The initiative started on Thursday and will continue. The collector’s court convenes on Thursdays and around 50 to 60 cases come up for hearing in a day.
Sandeepan said the option could be explored in the future to replicate the same in the lower courts in the collectorate office.
