Delhi HC asks Centre to consider plea for body-worn cameras for police managing protests, crowd

The Delhi High Court on Wednesday asked the Centre to consider a representation seeking standard operating procedures for police and rapid action force personnel to use ‘always-on’ body-worn cameras during crowd-control and protest-management duties.

A bench of Acting Chief Justice Nitin Wasudeo Sambre and Arun Bhardwaj disposed of a public interest litigation (PIL) in this regard and asked the government to treat it as a representation and communicate its decision to the petitioner within six months.

The court passed the order after the additional solicitor general (ASG), representing the Centre, said the petition can be treated as a representation by the authorities and they will communicate the decision to the petitioner within six months.

“Use of body worn cameras by police can be inferred from not only tender issued but also use of same by traffic police. The SOP is informed to not be in existence. In such event, there might not be in provision in police manual. However, since the statement is made by the ASG, we deem it appropriate to take same on record,” it said.

The court was hearing a PIL, filed by advocate Chahat Raghav, seeking direction for constitution of an expert committee to formulate a binding SOP, making the use of body-worn cameras mandatory and continuous (always-on) for every member of Delhi Police and Rapid Action Force deployed on crowd-control, protest-management or dispersal duty, from the commencement of deployment until stand-down.

The plea also sought a comprehensive regime governing the storage, integrity, retention and evidentiary use of footage recorded through such cameras.

During the hearing, the bench asked how the absence of body-worn cameras affects the rights of public at large.

To this, senior advocate Akhil Sibal, representing the petitioner, said when violence occurs there are allegations and counter allegations of violence and the issue pertains to accountability as to who is perpetrating violence and the use of excessive force by police.

He said there has to be some way for fixing the accountability.

During the hearing, Sibal said cameras are being used by police officials but they are used in a very sporadic way.

He said use of cameras was essential because allegations of excessive force used by police or protestors running and doing violence keep surfacing.

“We need a system so that the allegations are not left to private persons who are videographing,” Sibal added.

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ASG Chetan Sharma submitted that there were guidelines for organising protests in which videography aspect was taken care of.

The petitioner said the plea has been filed in the backdrop of the July protests at Jantar Mantar involving the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) and climate activist Sonam Wangchuk.

The plea said in the July protests, the use of force by Delhi Police and Rapid Action Force (RAF) upon student protesters was documented almost entirely through unofficial mobile-phone footage recorded by bystanders.

It said allegations of excessive use of force by Delhi Police and RAF were accompanied by allegations of stone-pelting, vandalism and attacks on police personnel.

“The accountability of the respondents and the police forces they command, and the evidence against some miscreants in the crowd, thus rested entirely on the happenstance of citizen videography, and a few fixed motion cameras placed at the protest site,” the plea said.