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Five years after a Supreme Court judgment made it mandatory to install and maintain CCTV cameras in police stations and offices of central law enforcement agencies with powers of “interrogation”, the top court on Thursday reopened the issue following reports of custodial deaths in recent months.
A Bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta took suo motu cognisance of a Dainik Bhaskar report that around 11 people had died in police custody in the past seven to eight months.
In 2020, a three-judge Bench headed by Justice Rohinton F. Nariman (now retired), in Paramvir Singh Saini versus Baljit Singh, had directed the Centre to compulsorily install CCTV cameras and recording equipment in police stations as a deterrent against custodial torture.
The court had ordered similar surveillance in the offices of central agencies such as the National Investigation Agency, Central Bureau of Investigation, Directorate of Enforcement, 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”.
The CCTVs and recording equipment, the court had said, would be used as a safeguard to protect the fundamental right to dignity and life.
“As most of these agencies carry out interrogation in their office(s), CCTVs shall be compulsorily installed in all offices where such interrogation and holding of accused takes place in the same manner as it would in a police station,” Justice Nariman, who authored the judgment, had directed.
The judgment had also mandated the constitution of oversight committees at State and district levels to monitor installation, functioning, budgetary needs and repair of CCTV systems.
It required that large posters informing people about CCTV coverage be prominently displayed at the offices of these central agencies and police stations. These posters were to clearly mention “that a person has a right to complain about human rights violations to the National/State Human Rights Commission, Human Rights Court or the Superintendent of Police or any other authority empowered to take cognisance of an offence”.
The court had further directed that CCTV footage be preserved for not less than six months. A victim of human rights violations within the precincts of these offices had the right to access the footage.
Published – September 04, 2025 02:54 pm IST
