Police stations must have functional CCTV cameras

Police stations must have functional CCTV cameras

The premier investigating agencies comes under the scanner of CCTV. The Supreme Court today (December 2, 2020) directed Centre to install CCTV cameras and recording equipment in the offices of Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), National Investigating Agency (NIA), Enforcement Directorate (ED), Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB), Department of Revenue Intelligence (DRI), Serious Fraud Investigating Office (SFIO) & any other agency which carries out interrogation and has power of arrest.

Supreme Court through its judgement dated December 02nd, 2020 emphasized the pressing need for all State Police Forces to implement IP based CCTV surveillance system in each police station of the state / UT in order to prevent unlawful activities, ensuring safety of its citizens and also to efficiently deal with the cases involving allegations of torture in custody.

The Supreme Court has passed directions for constitution of “Oversight Committees” at the State (State Level Oversight Committee) and District (District Level Oversight Committee) level for ongoing installation and maintenance of CCTVs in Police Stations across all UTs and States while it directed Finance Departments of all UTs and States to allocate fund for it. 

The State Level Oversight Committee must consist of:

(i) The Secretary/Additional Secretary, Home Department;

(ii) Secretary/Additional Secretary, Finance Department;

(iii) The Director General/Inspector General of Police; and

(iv) The Chairperson/member of the State Women’s Commission.

So far as the District Level Oversight Committee is concerned, this should comprise of:

(i) The Divisional Commissioner/ Commissioner of Divisions/ Regional Commissioner/ Revenue Commissioner Division of the District (by whatever name called);

(ii) The District Magistrate of the District;

(iii) A Superintendent of Police of that District; and

(iv) A mayor of a municipality within the District/ a Head of the Zilla Panchayat in rural areas.

Salient features of Supreme Court Judgement in respect of CCTV surveillance of all Police Stations in the country.

• CCTV cameras should be installed at each and every Police Station and no part of a Police Station should be left uncovered, it is imperative to ensure that CCTV cameras are installed at following locations:
  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.
• CCTVs shall also be installed in all the offices where interrogation and holding of accused takes place in the same manner as it would in a police station
• CCTV systems that have to be installed must be equipped with night vision and must necessarily consist of audio as well as video footage.
• In areas where there is either no electricity and/or internet, it shall be the duty of the States/Union Territories to provide the same as expeditiously as possible using any mode of providing electricity, including solar/wind power.
• The internet systems should support clear image resolutions and audio.
• CCTV camera footages should be preserved for a maximum possible period up to 18 months but not lesser than 12 months
• An oversight mechanism should be created whereby an independent committee can study the CCTV camera footages and periodically publish a report of its observations thereon.
• The District Level Oversight Committee shall have the following obligations:
• Health Monitoring and reporting of the CCTV systems
• To review footage stored from CCTVs in the various Police Stations to check for any human rights violation that may have occurred but are not reported
• The Commission/Court can immediately summon CCTV camera footage in relation to the complaint of any incident for its safe keeping, which may then be made available to an investigation agency in order to further process the complaint made to it.
• Posters at the entrance and inside of police station informing about the coverage of premises by CCTV, their privilege to file complaint to given authorities in case of any human rights violations inside the premises

The Government of Bihar has taken a huge step forward in its efforts to introduce transparency in the functioning of the police forces in the state. The Bihar State Electronics Development Corporation Ltd (BELTRON) has recently completed an ambitious project to bring the police stations of the state under 24×7 CCTV surveillance. More than 10,000 IP based CCTV cameras have been installed at over 900 police stations of Bihar. The project initiated and funded by the Home Department, Government of Bihar aims to fulfill the mandate of the Hon’ble Supreme Court to bring all police stations of the country under constant CCTV surveillance to protect human rights and prevent the use of torture in detention. The project was awarded to TATA Advanced Systems Ltd, one of India’s leading Physical & Cyber Security firms through a competitive bidding process at a cost of Rs 168 crores including operation and maintenance support for 5 years. Mr. C P Kariappa, Vice President, Tata Advanced Systems said “At TASL we have always taken pride in executing projects that build the nation, it was a prestigious project to be completed in challenging timeline across the state. Our teams could meet the expectations of customer despite disruptions due to flood and Covid-19”. The entire surveillance system is powered by Solar and online UPS to ensure 24X7 operations even if there is disruption in power supply. Mr. Kariappa further said “It was a pleasure working with Home Department, Govt of Bihar, Bihar Police and Beltron; this would not have been possible without their active participation and support. Also, we had an excellent team and partner ecosystem that lived up to all the challenges that was faced during the execution period”.

Bihar Government has plans to upgrade the existing system in line with the directions given by the Supreme Court and also extend it to the remaining police stations including outposts in the near future.

(2018) 5 SCC 311, directed that a Central Oversight Body be set up by the Ministry of Home Affairs to implement the plan of action with respect to the use of videography in the crime scene during the investigation. While considering the directions issued in D.K. Basu Vs. State of West Bengal & Others (2015) 8 SCC 744, it had held that there was a need for further directions that in every State an oversight mechanism be created whereby an independent committee can study the CCTV camera footages and periodically publish a report of its observations thereon. The COB was further directed to issue appropriate instructions in this regard at the earliest.

The Ministry of Home Affairs had constituted the Central Oversight Committee to oversee the implementation of the use of photography and videography in the crime scene by the State / Union Territory Government and other Central Agencies, to suggest the possibility of setting up a Central Server for implementation of videography, and to issue appropriate directions so as to ensure that use of videography becomes a reality in a phased manner.

The Court on 16/07/2020 had issued further notice to the MHA on the question of audio-video recordings of Section 161 CrPC statements as is provided by Section 161 (3) proviso, as well as the larger question as to installation of CCTV cameras in police stations generally. After which, action taken report was filed by 14 States till 24/11/2020, namely, West Bengal, Chhattisgarh, Tamil Nadu, Punjab, Nagaland, Karnataka, Tripura, Uttar Pradesh, Assam, Sikkim, Mizoram, Madhya Pradesh, Meghalaya, Manipur; and 2 Union Territories, namely, Andaman & Nicobar Islands and Puducherry.

The Court noted that the majority of the Compliance Affidavits and Action Taken Reports fail to disclose the exact position of CCTV cameras qua each Police Station. Further, it noted that the position qua constitution of Oversight Committees in accordance with the Order dated 03.04.2018, and/or details with respect to the Oversight Committees already constituted in the respective States and Union Territory have also not been disclosed.

Accordingly, the Supreme Court has passed the direction for filing of the Compliance affidavits by all the States and Union Territories by either the Principal Secretary of the State or the Secretary, Home Department of the States/Union Territories. “These affidavits are to be filed within a period of six weeks from today,” it said.

The Supreme Court has passed the slew of directions;

The Director General/Inspector General of Police of each State and Union Territory should issue directions to the person in charge of a Police Station to entrust the SHO of the concerned Police Station with the responsibility of assessing the working condition of the CCTV cameras installed in the police station and also to take corrective action to restore the functioning of all non-functional CCTV cameras. The SHO should also be made responsible for CCTV data maintenance, backup of data, fault rectification etc.

The State and Union Territory Governments should ensure that CCTV cameras are installed in each and every Police Station functioning in the respective State and/or Union Territory. Further, in order 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.

CCTV systems that have to be installed must be equipped with night vision and must necessarily consist of audio as well as video footage. In areas in which there is either no electricity and/or internet, it shall be the duty of the States/Union Territories to provide the same as expeditiously as possible using any mode of providing electricity, including solar/wind power. If the recording equipment, available in the market today, does not have the capacity to keep the recording for 18 months but for a lesser period of time, it shall be mandatory for all States, Union Territories and the Central Government to purchase one which allows storage for the maximum period possible, and, in any case, not below 1 year. It is also made clear that this will be reviewed by all the States so as to purchase equipment which is able to store the data for 18 months as soon as it is commercially available in the market. The affidavit of compliance to be filed by all States and Union Territories and Central Government shall clearly indicate that the best equipment available as of date has been purchased.

The Madhya Pradesh High Court while hearing a plea against alleged unlawful detention of the Petitioner by local Police authorities in the state, made prima facie observation that in order to escape liability, the Police often take a false stand that the CCTVs installed at Police station are not functioning. This Court feels prima facie that in order to cover up instances of unlawful detention by the police, the police comes up with the argument that the CCTV cameras are dysfunctional,” observed a Bench of Justice Atul Sreedharan.

It added that such a stand taken by the Police does not augur well for the ordinary citizens of the State as it creates an environment of giving an opportunity to the Police to act with impunity in complete disregard to human rights and personal liberty and enables them to detain anyone in the police station and conveniently give an explanation that the CCTV cameras were disfunctional during the period which the citizen says that he was unlaw detainer in the police station.

The remarks were made after the Court noted contradictions in the statements made by the local Police and by the Prosecutor, regarding reasons for not furnishing CCTV footage of the alleged date of detention. The former claimed that CCTV footage cannot be given as the cameras are not functioning since February 17. The prosecutor on the other hand submitted that the CCTV footage of the said period cannot be shown to the petitioner as that would reveal the identity of the source informant.

The facts of the petitioner’s case reveal a very shocking state of affairs in the State of Madhya Pradesh,” the Bench remarked while expressing surprise at the contrary stance. It noted that the prosecutor’s excuse for not giving the footage logically means that the CCTV cameras were functioning and there was indeed footage. But the police on the other hand claimed that the cameras themselves had turned dysfunctional from February, 2021.

In these circumstances, the Bench noted that the case discloses a larger issue and it has therefore summoned DIG- Bhopal (Urban), and SP (South Bhopal) on the next date of hearing, through video conferencing. They have been asked to come up with an explanation as to why the cameras were dysfunctional from 17.2.2021, whether the authorities who had to be informed about the dysfunctionality of the cameras were duly so informed by the SHO of PS Piplan, Bhopal and if they were so informed, what were the steps taken forthwith by those officials to have the cameras rectified in the shortest possible time.

Ref: 

https://www.isrmag.com/supreme-court-directive-to-implement-cctvs-in-all-police-stations-across-india/
https://www.scconline.com/blog/post/2020/12/02/sc-directs-all-states-uts-to-install-cctv-cameras-in-all-police-station-read-how-cctv-cameras-will-help-curb-custodial-violence/