New Delhi, July 17 -- Less than a week after a litigant appearing in person created a ruckus inside a Supreme Court courtroom by hurling papers, using abusive language and disrupting judicial proceedings, the apex court has decided that parties-in-person will ordinarily be encouraged to appear virtually, while those insisting on physical appearance will have to forgo live streaming and video recording of the proceedings. The decision was taken at a full court meeting of all Supreme Court judges on Wednesday and announced through an official statement on Thursday, in what appears to be the first institutional response by the court to the July 10 disruption, which led to the arrest of two law students after one of them allegedly assaulted security personnel while being escorted out of the courtroom. The full court resolved that during the interaction with the registrar under the Supreme Court Rules, 2013, parties appearing in person will be given the option to argue their cases through the virtual mode. However, where a litigant insists on appearing physically, "no live-streaming shall be done and video-recording of the proceedings shall also not be permitted", the statement said. The move is aimed at preserving courtroom decorum while ensuring that litigants continue to have access to the court. It also seeks to prevent disruptive incidents from being amplified through publicly available live-streams. The decision follows last week's unprecedented incident in Court No. 13, where petitioner-in-person Prabal Pratap referred to judges as "judicial servants", hurled abuses, flung papers inside the courtroom and resisted security personnel before being removed. The bench, led by Justice KV Viswanathan, chose not to initiate contempt proceedings, observing that it was refraining from taking action considering the petitioner's condition. Delhi Police subsequently arrested Pratap and another law student, Chander Bhan, on charges including assaulting a public servant and obstructing judicial proceedings. The latest measure also comes months after another courtroom security scare in which a 71-year-old lawyer attempted to hurl a shoe at then Chief Justice Bhushan R Gavai. This incident occurred in October 2025. While declining to initiate contempt proceedings in that case, a bench headed by Justice Surya Kant had at the time emphasised that the court's focus should be on devising preventive mechanisms rather than punitive measures to ensure that such incidents do not recur....