Custodial deaths: SC pulls up Centre over CCTV compliance delay

THe sublime margaret court on tues underlined the demand for constabulary stations and investigating agencies to implement its order mandating CCTVs in areas of public interface, observing that custodial deaths are a blot on the law and order system which the country will not tolerate.Hearing a suo motu petition on the lack of functional CCTVs in police stations following a news report about 11 custodial deaths in Rajasthan jails between January to August this year, the court criticised the Centre for not complying with its orders passed since 2020 by installing CCTVs at offices of the Central Bureau of Investigation, Enforcement Directorate and National Investigation Agency (NIA).Granting three weeks to the Centre, 19 states and seven Union territories to report compliance, the bench warned that any non-compliance will have to be explained by the principal home secretaries of the states/UTs and the directors of the central investigating agencies by remaining present in court.A bench of justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta said, “There were 11 deaths in 8 months in Rajasthan. This is a blot on our system. Now this country will not tolerate custodial deaths in police stations.”Senior advocate Siddharth Dave assisting the court as amicus curiae informed the bench that the top court had mentioned the importance of having CCTVs in police stations and interrogation rooms of central probe agencies long back in the Paramvir Singh Saini case (2020) .Dave said that even after the court took suo motu cognizance on the report from Rajasthan and passed an order on October 14 seeking compliance of its 2020 and 2021 orders in the Paramvir Singh Saini case, only 11 states responded. At the central level, Dave said the order was implemented by just three agencies --- the Narcotics Control Bureau, Department of Revenue Intelligence and Serious Fraud Investigation Office. On CBI, ED and NIA, the response of the Centre filed in the 2020 proceedings indicated that they were yet to comply as the Centre had failed to allocate funds for the purpose.The bench remarked, “The Union has not filed any compliance to our order. It seems the Centre is not taking the court seriously.”The court on October 14 specifically sought the Centre’s response on a suggestion to create a centralised dashboard or software system for detecting and flagging any malfunction or tampering of CCTV cameras in police stations. This was proposed as in the Rajasthan case the police stations where deaths took place did not have functional CCTVs, raising suspicion of possible tampering .Solicitor general Tushar Mehta who was present in court said although he was not appearing in the matter, he would take instructions and file a response. He doubted the efficacy of having CCTVs as he claimed it was more of an idea propagated in western countries. “To what extent it is effective needs to be seen,” Mehta said.Notable among the states that failed to file a compliance report were Delhi, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Karnataka, Kerala, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, West Bengal, and the UT of Jammu and Kashmir.