The Supreme Court on Thursday took suo motu cognisance of a media report about Rajasthan Police not providing CCTV footage in cases of alleged custodial deaths, citing dysfunctional cameras at police stations in the state.
A bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta directed that a suo motu PIL be registered, titled ‘Lack of functional CCTVs in police stations’.
The court pointed out that the report by Hindi daily Dainik Bhaskar said that there were 11 deaths in police custody in the last eight months. The report said that the CCTV footage was not being provided, with the police claiming the cameras were faulty or storage was full, and sometimes citing confidentiality.
A three-judge Supreme Court bench had, in a judgment on December 2, 2020, asked states and Union Territories (UTs) to “ensure that CCTV cameras are installed in each and every police station” functioning in their respective limits and to store the recording for a minimum of one year.
The top court had also asked the central government “to install CCTV cameras and recording equipment in the offices of” the Central Bureau of Investigation, National Investigation Agency, Enforcement Directorate, Narcotics Control Bureau, Department of Revenue Intelligence, Serious Fraud Investigation Office, and “any other agency which carries out interrogations and has the power of arrest…in the same manner as it would in a police station”.
The ruling came on a plea by one Paramvir Singh Saini, who raised the issue of audio-video recording of statements of witnesses and installation of CCTVs in police stations.
Earlier, the Supreme Court had, in the D K Basu vs State of West Bengal case in 2015, directed that CCTVs be installed in all police stations and prisons to check human rights abuses.
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However, when it sought a status report from states and UTs in the present matter, 14 states and two UTs responded. The “majority” of them lacked details on the installation and working of CCTVs in their police stations.
In the 2020 judgment, the court said that to ensure that no part of a police station is left uncovered, “it is imperative to ensure that CCTV cameras are installed at all entry and exit points; main gate of the police station; all lock-ups; all corridors; lobby/the reception area; all verandas/outhouses, Inspector’s room; Sub-Inspector’s room; areas outside the lock-up room; station hall; in front of the police station compound; outside (not inside) washrooms/toilets; Duty Officer’s room; back part of the police station etc.”
The CCTV systems must be night-vision equipped and must record both video and audio, the court had said, and asked the government to provide electricity and internet in areas which lack this “as expeditiously as possible using any mode of providing electricity, including solar/wind power”.
The “most important of all”, the SC had said, “is the storage of CCTV camera footage which can be done in digital video recorders and/or network video recorders”.
