The Indian Express: Article: Saturday, 6Th
December 2025.
“...The government is a house of record. Everything gets documented in writing; even files have to have notations on them. Everything has to be recorded and is available under the RTI Act,” Gokhale told The Indian Express, adding, “It is the same with Parliament...”
Trinamool Congress’s Rajya
Sabha MP Saket Gokhale on Friday sought a law mandating the recording,
transcription and public availability of accurate records, even oral
observations by judges, of proceedings of all courts from the district-level to
the Supreme Court.
Introducing a private members’ Bill Records of Court Proceedings Bill, 2025 in the Upper House during the second half of the day’s proceedings, Gokhale said it is aimed at bringing a law which would require the maintenance of “an accurate public record of proceedings of all courts in India which will be transcribed in writing”.
“…The government is a house of record. Everything gets documented in writing; even files have to have notations on them. Everything has to be recorded and is available under the Right to Information Act,” Gokhale told The Indian Express.
“It is the same with Parliament transcripts of the day’s proceedings are published every day, every word that is uttered gets into the record of Parliament. Something unparliamentary may get expunged but the rest is recorded and that too for perpetuity. As far as our judiciary is concerned, only the written orders… become a part of judicial records,” he said.
While the Government is accountable to Parliament and Parliament to the people, the judiciary “seems to be accountable only to itself”, said the MP.
“The judiciary is the only institution where the oversight, appointments everything is done within the institution; they are not accountable to any other branch of the state,” he said.
“This (the proposed law) will make judicial proceedings more transparent; why look at a case only through a summation at the end of a few years. Today, a challenge to an order is only to the text of it and not its entire context. This will enable litigants to challenge not just a particular judgment order but also the rationale behind it from point A to point Z,” he said.
Gokhale said the private members’ Bill seeks to bring the Supreme Court, all High Courts as well as subordinate courts as stated under Part VI (Chapter VI) of the Constitution under its ambit and “court proceedings” mean “all words uttered by magistrates, judges, lawyers, and any other parties involved in a matter when that matter is being heard by any court (civil or criminal) in India”.
The “transcript” refers to “an accurate verbatim record of the proceedings of the court in writing” which would be maintained as “public information”, mandate a transcript of daily proceedings being uploaded by every court on its website within 24 hours and also treated as information under the Right to Information Act, 2005.
“...The government is a house of record. Everything gets documented in writing; even files have to have notations on them. Everything has to be recorded and is available under the RTI Act,” Gokhale told The Indian Express, adding, “It is the same with Parliament...”
Introducing a private members’ Bill Records of Court Proceedings Bill, 2025 in the Upper House during the second half of the day’s proceedings, Gokhale said it is aimed at bringing a law which would require the maintenance of “an accurate public record of proceedings of all courts in India which will be transcribed in writing”.
“…The government is a house of record. Everything gets documented in writing; even files have to have notations on them. Everything has to be recorded and is available under the Right to Information Act,” Gokhale told The Indian Express.
“It is the same with Parliament transcripts of the day’s proceedings are published every day, every word that is uttered gets into the record of Parliament. Something unparliamentary may get expunged but the rest is recorded and that too for perpetuity. As far as our judiciary is concerned, only the written orders… become a part of judicial records,” he said.
While the Government is accountable to Parliament and Parliament to the people, the judiciary “seems to be accountable only to itself”, said the MP.
“The judiciary is the only institution where the oversight, appointments everything is done within the institution; they are not accountable to any other branch of the state,” he said.
“This (the proposed law) will make judicial proceedings more transparent; why look at a case only through a summation at the end of a few years. Today, a challenge to an order is only to the text of it and not its entire context. This will enable litigants to challenge not just a particular judgment order but also the rationale behind it from point A to point Z,” he said.
Gokhale said the private members’ Bill seeks to bring the Supreme Court, all High Courts as well as subordinate courts as stated under Part VI (Chapter VI) of the Constitution under its ambit and “court proceedings” mean “all words uttered by magistrates, judges, lawyers, and any other parties involved in a matter when that matter is being heard by any court (civil or criminal) in India”.
The “transcript” refers to “an accurate verbatim record of the proceedings of the court in writing” which would be maintained as “public information”, mandate a transcript of daily proceedings being uploaded by every court on its website within 24 hours and also treated as information under the Right to Information Act, 2005.
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