MADURAI
The Madras High Court Bench here on Tuesday refused to issue a direction to the Transport Commissioner to instal closed-circuit television cameras in the office of the Regional Transport Officer at Tiruchendur in Thoothukudi district in order to keep a check over its day-to-day functions.
The First Division Bench of Chief Justice Indira Banerjee and Justice Pushpa Sathyanarayana disposed of a public interest litigation petition filed by a driving school owner with an observation that it was for the authorities concerned to instal the CCTVs and not for the court to issue a direction to that effect.
The judges said the State Government had framed the Tamil Nadu Urban Local Bodies (Installation of Closed-Circuit Television Units in Public Buildings) Rules, 2012, through a Government Order issued by Municipal Administration Department on December 14, 2012.
The 2012 rules made installation of the CCTVs mandatory in all public buildings, commercial establishments and places where a large number of people gathered. They were framed pursuant to a request made on November 23, 2011, by the then Director General of Police as a measure to control crime.
‘Public building’ in the rules meant schools, colleges, universities, hostels, hospitals, marriage halls, cinema theatres, banks, ATM centres, jewellery shops, shopping malls, fuel stations, etc. In so far as other buildings were concerned, the CCTVs could be installed by the Collectors on the recommendations of the police.
In so far as the present case was concerned, there was no such recommendation by the police or a proposal by the Collector for installation of the CCTVs in Tiruchendur RTO office. Further, the petitioner, Amal Anthony Ambrose Freeman, had not given cogent reasons for his plea to instal the cameras in the office, the judges added.