Expedite CCTV installation in vulnerable areas: HC

New Delhi: The Delhi Police on Thursday told the Delhi High Court that the CCTV cameras it plans to install in vulnerable areas of the city will record hi-definition videos and will have facial recognition and number plate identification features. 

Taking note of the submission, the High Court directed the police to ensure that CCTV cameras are procured and installed in the 44 vulnerable areas within one year as against the time line of 18 months given by the law enforcement agency. 

A bench of justices Sanjiv Khanna and A J Bhambani asked the Delhi Police to simultaneously carry out steps of floating tenders for procurement of cameras and getting necessary approvals from land owning agencies to install them, so that overall time required for the project is reduced. 

"You (police) have to expedite the procurement process. We hope the entire process would be completed in a much shorter period, preferably one year," the court said. 

The suggestion from the bench came after the police, represented by Delhi government standing counsel Rahul Mehra and additional standing counsel Rajesh Mahajan, told the court that it would take 18 months to install around 6,500 to 7,000 cameras in 44 vulnerable locations in the city. 

He also said that the cameras to be installed in vulnerable areas would not have audio recording facility and all video data recorded would be wirelessly sent to a centralised location and stored there. 

The bench, thereafter, asked the Delhi Police to file a status report by the next date of hearing indicating progress in installing CCTV cameras in vulnerable areas and police stations in the city. 

The Delhi government was asked to file a status report on the issue of lighting up the dark and vulnerable areas of the national capital and listed the matter for further hearing on February 15. 

The court was hearing a PIL plea initiated by it in 2012 after the horrific December 16, 2012 gang rape of a young woman in a moving bus.
 
Apart from that, the court was also hearing a plea by social activist Ajay Gautam alleging that there have been several deaths inside police stations in the city in 2018 and the presence of functional CCTVs could act as a deterrent.