CCTVs in all police stations: Excuse of not being an advanced country no longer available, says High Court

Saurabh Malik

Chandigarh, February 16

Just about a month after the Punjab and Haryana High Court made it clear that interrogation rooms too would be covered by the Supreme Court directions on installing CCTV cameras in every nook and corner of police stations, the Bench has reiterated that the excuse of not being as advanced as other countries was no longer available.

The assertion by Justice Amol Rattan Singh came as the UT and the states of Punjab and Haryana submitted a timeline for implementing the Supreme Court orders on ensuring the installation of CCTV cameras in each and every police station.

We are the fifth or the sixth largest economy in the world and, therefore, the excuse of us not being as advanced as other countries is no longer available to us… — Justice Amol Rattan Singh

“We are the fifth or the sixth largest economy in the world and, therefore, the excuse of us not being as advanced as other countries is no longer available to us, unless we choose not to follow a more civilised method of apprehension and investigation,” Justice Amol Rattan Singh asserted.

The Bench, during the course of the hearing, was told that all police stations and police posts in the UT already stood equipped with cameras, but upgrade of these in terms of the Supreme Court orders would take about five months. It also sought a month’s ‘buffer’ in this regard.

The state of Haryana submitted that it would be bound to install all such CCTV cameras in police posts by April 1. But there may be some delay due to a fresh outbreak of the pandemic. The state of Punjab, on the other hand, submitted that CCTV cameras would be duly installed in all police posts by May 10.

Taking up the issue, Justice Amol Rattan Singh had, on a previous date of hearing, asked Punjab, Haryana and the Chandigarh DGP to file affidavits on compliance with the Supreme Court directions. The directions came after an accused filed a plea through senior advocate Bipan Ghai with counsel Paras Talwar. He was seeking directions for conducting videography from the time of leaving the jail premises till reaching the police station concerned for interrogation. Ghai also prayed for direction to record the interrogation.

Ghai pointed out to the directions by the Supreme Court on the issue in the case of “Paramvir Singh Saini versus Baljit Singh”.