Supreme Court Moots Control Room To Monitor If CCTV Cameras In Police Stations Are Switched Off; Reserves Order

The Supreme Court today reserved orders in the case where it took suo motu cognizance of a news report on the lack of functional CCTVs and deaths in police custody across the State of Rajasthan.A bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta expressed that it is considering independent monitoring of the CCTV cameras in police stations without any human intervention, as even if CCTVs are installed in compliance with the Court's earlier directions, the same can be switched off by officials."Issue is of oversight. Today there may be compliance affidavit, tomorrow officers may switch off cameras...we were thinking of a control room in which there is no human intervention...any camera goes off, there is a flag...there has to be inspection of police station also by independent agency...we can think of involving IIT to provide mechanism so that CCTV footage is monitored without human intervention", said Justice Mehta, upon hearing Senior Advocate Siddharth Dave.Notably, in December 2020, the Court had mandated in Paramvir Singh Saini v. Baljit Singh that all State and Union Territory Governments should ensure that CCTV cameras are installed in each and every police station functioning under them. However, compliance remained patchy, with many cameras either not installed or lying defunct.Today, Dave informed that while some states have complied with the directions, others have not. He highlighted that the Union of India, which has premier investigating agencies under it like the ED, NIA and CBI, have also not complied with the Court's orders. The senior counsel further acknowledged the issue of CCTV cameras being switched off manually in police stations, and submitted that monitoring would not only address issue of custodial deaths, but also custodial torture and abuse.On September 4, the Court took up the issue suo motu, based on a report published by Dainik Bhaskar, as per which around 11 people had died in police custody in Rajasthan over the last 8 months this year. "We have come across a disturbing News Article in today's newspaper 'Dainik Bhaskar, Rajasthan Edition', i.e., 4t h September, 2025. The News Article reveals that there have been 11 deaths in police custody in the State of Rajasthan in the past 8 months in the year of 2025, 7 of these unfortunate incidents happened in the Udaipur Division itself", the Court noted.With this observation, the Registry was directed to register a suo motu case and the matter placed before CJI BR Gavai for appropriate orders.Case Title: IN RE LACK OF FUNCTIONAL CCTVS IN POLICE STATIONS Versus, SMW(C) No. 7/2025Click Here To Read/Download Order

Supreme Court Moots Control Room To Monitor If CCTV Cameras In Police Stations Are Switched Off; Reserves Order

Debby Jain

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