SC takes suo moto cognisance of non-functional CCTV cameras in police stations

New Delhi, Sep 4 The Supreme Court on Thursday registered a suo motu case over the lack of functional CCTV cameras in police stations across the country.

A bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta took cognisance of a media report stating that 11 people have died in police custody in Rajasthan during the first eight months of 2025.

According to the media report, police often do not provide CCTV footage in custodial death cases, and many police stations have remand rooms outside the cameras’ view.

The police gave various reasons for withholding CCTV footage, including technical faults, lack of storage, ongoing investigations, or legal restrictions, while in some cases, they simply refused to share the footage or delayed its release.

The Supreme Court has already mandated the installation of CCTV cameras in police stations to maintain transparency and to curb instances of custodial torture. It had issued a slew of directions to streamline the management of CCTVs installation and to review footage for human rights violations by the central oversight body (COB) and state-level oversight committee (SLOC).

The top court had directed that the SHO of every police station be made responsible for maintaining CCTV data, backing up recordings, and fixing faults.

"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, to ensure that no part of a police station is left uncovered," it had said.

Further, the apex court had mandated that CCTV camera footage should be stored in digital video recorders or network video recorders. Importantly, the recording system should be such that the data stored therein is preserved for 18 months.

In April 2023, the Supreme Court had given to the Centre and all state governments and Union Territories a “last chance” to install CCTV cameras inside police stations within three months.

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