Supreme Court Summons Union Home Secretary Over Lack of Functional CCTVs in Police Stations

New Delhi: Questioning the Union government over lack of functional CCTV cameras in police stations, from police stations, the Supreme Court on Monday (April 6) asked the Union home secretary to appear before it.

While hearing the suo motu case, a bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta also sought to know about recent media reports about removal of CCTV cameras made by a Chinese company, reported The Tribune.

When additional solicitor general Raja Thakare, who represented the Union government, said that no formal order has yet been issued in this regard, the court said, “Let this matter come up again tomorrow. The Home Secretary to remain present before this court so that appropriate assistance can be drawn from him in implementation of the scheme that is being monitored by this court.

When amicus curiae and senior advocate Siddhartha Dave said that Kerala had the best set up, Justice Nath said, “If you say that Kerala has the best set up, why can’t it be followed up by other states?”

He added that it should be discussed by the authorities.

Amicus curiae Dave submitted that most of the states had installed CCTV cameras and that they were in the process of setting up centralised dashboards.

In September 2025, the Supreme Court had initiated a suo motu Public Interest Litigation (PIL) after a newspaper report highlighted 11 custodial deaths over the last eight months, linking the issue to lack of functional CCTV cameras in police stations.

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