The Allahabad High Court has said that CCTV systems within police stations must remain operational 24×7 throughout the year and police must follow certain safeguards when such surveillance is non-functional.
The court directed that if a system fails, the Station House Officer (SHO) must make a GD entry recording the exact time of failure and identify the official to whom the failure was reported in writing and the Superintendent of Police (SP) of the district must be informed to ensure minimal downtime and record repair steps. The court observed, “The facts of this case, prima facie, strongly disclose that the police personnel acted as recovery agents on behalf of the complainant. Interior CCTV footage from three cameras was missing or deleted.
In its order dated September 23, the court directed that CCTV systems within police stations must remain operational 24/7 and for 365 days. CCTV footage showed the petitioner entering the police station at 9:00 AM on July 13, 2026, leaving at 10:19 AM with the Investigating Officer in the informant’s vehicle and returning at 8:24 PM. However, his arrest memo recorded arrest at 3:30 PM, and the GD recorded lock-up entry at 6:41 PM.
The court said, “Another worrying aspect of this case to which this court must advert to is the repeated number of cases in which the police are trying to manipulate CCTV cameras within the premises of the police station.
A bench of justices Atul Sreedharan and Achal Sachdev made the observations while hearing a case of Raghvendra Dubey and another.
