Video Conference helps bring justice in court for children in India

The Delhi government has decided to install video conferencing facility in all district courts in the city to enable rape victims and exploited children to record their testimonies without fear or duress, reports Asian Age.

Delhi law and justice minister Ramakant Goswami said that the government decided to install the video-conferencing facility as it has been observed that certain victims are not able to express their sufferings due to fear in the open courts.

“This is particularly applicable to rape victims and exploited children,” Mr Goswami said. He claimed Delhi would be the first state in the country to provide such facility to women and child victims while noting that his department was making assessment about other difficulties that affect delivery of justice. Mr Goswami also stressed on the need for early disposal of pending cases and exhorted lawyers and employees in the court to render constructive co-operation to ensure timely delivery of justice to the concerned parties.



Meanwhile, the Hindustan Times reported outrage and uproar following the banning of a video conferenced reading by Salman Rushdie:

Artists challenged the right of protestors to ban Salman Rushdie from the Jaipur Literature fest after the video conference of Rushdie had to be called off after people entered the venue and tried to disrupt the event. Hours after the video conference was cancelled, protestors and supporters of Rushdie’s right to speak at the event took to the stage and debated on the issue.
Mohammed Salim Engineer of the Islamist group Jamaat-e-Islami Hind said the right to freedom of expression did not extend to the freedom to abuse another person’s faith. “If a person has written a good things, they’re appreciable, but if he has written one thing which has provoke, abusing a faith in the name of freedom of expression cannot be allowed,” he said.
Salim also said that that the basis of Islam is freedom and everyone had the right to express their difference in opinion.
Javed Akhtar, lyricist and scriptwriter, took on the protestors and questioned their right to ban a writer in a country along with the banned book. “If the book is banned, will you ban the writer also? The book has outraged sensibilities and if the court and government has decided that it should not be read publically is a law, but if they say that the man cannot come to the country is going outside the realm of law,” Javed said.
“Salman Rushdie’s voice is not silenced it speaks to us in hundred ways,” said Tarun Tejpal, editor-in-chief of Tehelka magazine.