WhatsApp is part of a shocking, incredible, and worrying scandal, due to a world premiere that shows us that the platform is, for some, much more important than it seems at first glance. More precisely, in India at least some court hearings of a trial, but also the judge's decision were made/given via WhatsApp during a video call made with the defendants who were stunned by what was happening, and contested the decision.
WhatsApp is in the center of attention because this case reached the US Supreme Court of Justice after the defendants challenged the way the trial was conducted, and the decision was given in this case, all in a very unusual way. WhatsApp has also been used by judges in India to send hearing decisions to various parties involved in trials in order to limit certain rights, but this is the first time that an important decision is pronounced in this way.
WhatsApp: WORRYING PREMIERE Officially Revealed
WhatsApp was used to conduct some court hearings even though the defendants could reach the courtrooms, and even though the quality of the video stream was very poor, and probably not everything was understood very well. The decision to conduct the trial via WhatsApp would have been based on the fact that the defendants were prohibited from entering the city where the trial was taking place, but considering that they had to be there, access had to be allowed for them to defend themselves.
"The case, involving a former minister of Jharkhand and his MLA wife, saw the lower court judge in Hazaribagh putting these accused on trial by pronouncing the order framing charges against them through a 'WhatsApp' call. The trial was directed to be conducted through video conferencing from the district court in Bhopal and the district court in Hazaribagh, Jharkhand. Tankha said that video conferencing connectivity was most of the times "very low" in Bhopal and Hazaribagh district courts and the April 19 order was pronounced by the trial judge through 'WhatsApp' call."
WhatsApp is a very useful application for many things, but conducting court hearings through video calls is not exactly something that should be done through an application of this kind. Video conferences are used to take the testimonies of some people in certain processes, even in Romania, but what we see now with WhatsApp, especially in terms of communicating the decision, is very unusual, but it is unlikely to become a practice beyond India, probably.
