‘Farce’, ‘breach of SC order’: Bombay HC raps state govt over affidavit on CCTV cameras at police stations

The court said that the manner in which the compliance of top court order was handled by the government was a “farce” and in “complete breach” of the SC order. It further sought to know why CCTV cameras were still not installed in half of the police stations across the state and why many of those installed are non-functional.

The HC was responding to the affidavit filed by the Maharashtra government informing the court that it had allocated Rs 60 crore to install CCTV cameras in police stations across the state and that the said work was to be completed by April this year.

Observing that such an approach by the state government “affected the interest of the public at large,” the court sought “active assistance” from Advocate General Ashutosh Kumbhakoni and asked him to remain present during the next hearing on Monday, February 21.

A division bench of Justice S J Kathawalla and Justice Milind N Jadhav had last month directed Maharashtra Chief Secretary (CS) to take stern action against officers of police stations that have not complied with the 2020 Supreme Court ruling to install CCTV cameras and maintain recordings with regular backups.

It had asked the CS to file a report on CCTVs at all police stations and the duration for which the recorded data is stored along with steps to back it up.

On Tuesday, advocate Shruti Vyas for state government submitted an affidavit cum report filed by state CS Debashish Chakrabarty, which stated that the government has already allocated an amount of Rs 6.23 crore for commissioning of CCTVs at police stations and that the work order for the same has been issued in November, 2020.

It added that two contractors – Sujata Computers Pvt Ltd, Pune and Javi Systems India Pvt Ltd, Bengaluru – have been selected to execute the said installation project, which includes maintenance of all CCTVs and instruments for a period of five years with effect from August 6, 2021.

The affidavit by the government stated that there are 1,089 police stations in the state and so far, 6,092 cameras had been installed in 547 police stations. Of these, 5,639 cameras were functional and 453 were non-functional, the affidavit said, adding contractors have been directed to rectify the issue within a month. It said that the work of wiring and cabling in the remaining 542 police stations is completed.

The affidavit further said that while the work was to be completed till March, 2021, delay was caused due to the pandemic as delivery of the equipment from original manufactures got affected. Efforts are being made to complete the project by April 30, 2022, it added. The state said that the system is mandated to keep the recorded CCTV footage for a minimum of 365 days.

After perusing the affidavit, the bench noted that the same was “devoid of relevant particulars” and “completely unsatisfactory” as no particulars were given as to which police stations had the non-functional CCTVs. It noted the officer present before it was unable to answer as to how the two contractors were selected.

Justice Jadhav also wondered as to how the state had spent approximately Rs 6 lakh per police station for installing CCTVs cameras while the amount actually required per camera could be lesser.

Justice Kathawalla remarked, “We see that an action has been taken only after the Court passed the order. Are we supposed to run the administration, spoon feed them?… A common person goes to the police station everyday thinking that SC directions are being followed and we do not know what is happening to the Rs 60 crore.

Every point here (in affidavit) suggests that Rs 60 crore is gone down the drain and in every other police station, there is non-functional CCTV. They don’t want to show it to any authority about what is happening in the police stations. That is the whole idea. It is just a farce. 60 crores have been wasted in all this.”