NEW DELHI: Terming custodial death a “blot” on the system that cannot be tolerated any more in the country, Supreme Court on Tuesday pulled up the Centre and states for not complying with its order to install CCTVs in police stations and offices of central investigating agencies.A bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta was peeved at Centre and state govts for not filing a compliance affidavit on installation of CCTVs after it was told that only 11 states had so far filed a response. Senior advocate Siddharth Dave, who is amicus curiae, told the court that there were six agencies working under central govt – NIA, DRI, CBI, ED, NCB and SFIO – but they had not complied with apex court’s order”Now, this country will not tolerate this. This is a blot on the system. You can’t have deaths in custody,” the bench said. The court observed that the Centre was taking the court lightly by not complying with its order. Solicitor general Tushar Mehta, who was present in the courtroom, assured SC that govt would file its response and sought three weeks’ time. “Having CCTV inside the police stations also is something which can be counterproductive to investigation. Now there is a judgment, we can’t argue,” Mehta said. The court granted three weeks to Centre, states and UTs to file compliance affidavits . “List these matters again on Dec 16, 2025. If by the said date the compliance affidavits are not filed…, the principal secretary and director of respective central agencies shall remain present before this court along with their explanations for not complying with the previous orders and today’s orders,” SC ordered.In view of an increasing number of custodial deaths, SC took suo motu cognizance and proposed that help from AI be taken to monitor all CCTV cameras installed to raise an alarm to authorities concer-ned when a camera is switched off or becomes non-functional.
