Citing report on custodial deaths, Supreme Court directs PIL on 'lack of CCTV in police stations'

NEW DELHI: Supreme Court on Thursday took suo motu cognisance of a media report on custodial deaths in police stations and decided to examine implementation of its earlier order on installing CCTV cameras in police stations.

A bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta referred to a report in Dainik Bhaskar on custodial deaths in Rajasthan. "...We are directing for a suo motu public interest litigation titled 'lack of functional CCTVs in police stations', as it has been reported that there have been 11 deaths in last 7-8 month in year 2025 in police custody ," the court said.

The apex court had in 2020 passed directions making installation of CCTVs in police stations mandatory. The order also applies to offices of central agencies where interrogation is carried out.