MUMBAI: The Bombay High Court on Monday slammed the Maharashtra government for not doing anything "substantial" for installing CCTV cameras in the police stations across the state. The HC said the state "intentionally" doesn't want to comply with the Supreme Court orders and as a result of it the police officers refuse to provide CCTV footages to courts, whenever asked for.
A bench of Justices Shahrukh Kathawalla and Milind Jadhav was unimpressed with the submissions made by advocate general Ashutosh Kumbhakoni, who said that the state will comply with the directives of the apex court soon.
"Let us be candid and say that this is all done intentionally," Justice Kathawalla remarked.
The judges pointed out that in December 2020 the top court had issued directives to all the states to install CCTV cameras in all of the police stations.
"We find that nothing substantial has been done in Maharashtra in the past two years. We want to know if anyone in this state even bothered to read the Supreme Court order? You (state government) have to comply with the SC order," the bench observed, adding that the whole purpose of the top court's directives was to ensure transparency.
"Thus, only paper compliance would not suffice. You need to set up a committee to look into all this, otherwise no one would be bothered," the bench said.
During the hearing, Kumbhakoni told the bench that work is being carried out by two contractors to install CCTVs in police stations and to repair the ones which are currently non-functional. He further submitted that the contractors have been asked to repair all the non-functional CCTVs within a period of 15 days.
As per an affidavit submitted by the government in the court on Monday, there are 1,089 police stations in the state.
So far 6,092 CCTVs have been installed in 547 police stations.
Out of these cameras, 5,639 are functional, while the remaining are non-functional.
The bench then highlighted the fact that the top court's order clearly asked states to install CCTVs at all the entry and exit points, inside the lock-ups, in the rooms of the inspectors, sub-inspectors and other places.
Hearing Kumbhakoni's submissions, the judges further sought to know why only two contractors were given the contract for installing the CCTVs.
The AG responded that the state had agreed with the contractors to install the CCTVs within 22 weeks time frame and that they were asked to maintain the records for a period of five years. He further pointed out that due to the COVID-19 pandemic and non-availability of some hardware parts, the work was stalled and and hence payments were stopped from November 2020 and it was made only in the last month when the work resumed.
Matter has now been adjourned for further hearing till March first week.
