Required To Connect CCTV Cameras Installed In Hospitals To Nearest Police Stations: Gauhati High Court

Sparsh Upadhyay

31 July 2021 4:00 AM GMT

  • Required To Connect CCTV Cameras Installed In Hospitals To Nearest Police Stations: Gauhati High Court

    Dealing with a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) petition seeking protection of doctors in the present pandemic, the Gauhati High Court on Friday said that mere installation of CCTV cameras in the hospitals is not enough and that the CCTV cameras are required to be connected to the nearest Police Station.Observing thus, the Bench of Chief Justice Sudhanshu Dhulia and Justice Manash Ranjan...

    Dealing with a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) petition seeking protection of doctors in the present pandemic, the Gauhati High Court on Friday said that mere installation of CCTV cameras in the hospitals is not enough and that the CCTV cameras are required to be connected to the nearest Police Station.

    Observing thus, the Bench of Chief Justice Sudhanshu Dhulia and Justice Manash Ranjan Pathak directed the Assam Government Assam to apprise the Court within ten days as to the progress in this regard.

    During the course of the previous hearing, the Bench was informed by the Advocate General, Assam, that regarding the incident that occurred on 01.06.2021 wherein medical personnel were attacked, the police have completed its investigation and a charge-sheet has been filed and as many as twenty-four persons have already been arrested so far.

    The Himachal Pradesh High Court recently directed the State Government to comply with the directions of the Supreme Court's last year order by ensuring that the CCTV cameras are installed inside the covid dedicated hospitals and also to make available the footage to the respective Expert Committee for period observations for dealing with the covid 19 situations.

    A division bench comprising of Chief Justice L Narayana Swamy and Justice Anoop Chitkara ordered thus:

    "State Government is directed to comply with the directions issued by the Hon'ble apex Court in order to make available the footage to the Expert Committee for stepping up or ramping up the situation, wherever it is not installed. Wherever the CCTV cameras are installed, it is to be ascertained whether the same are functioning and in case it is functioning, CCTV footages periodically be placed before the Expert's Committee/Expert Bodies to make observations periodically."

    In April 2020, the Bombay High Court, bench at Nagpur had directed the Collector of Nagpur, Commissioner of Nagpur Municipal Corporation and other heads to "prepare proposals for installing CCTV cameras in the corridors of all institutional quarantine centres" and where the corridors are not available, at suitable places, for having "electronic surveillance" in order to check the movements of quarantined patients in and out of the rooms at the State's expenses. The Court gave a time of 10 days from the passing of the said order for sending names to the State or Central Government and to place the copy of the proposal on record.

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