Supreme Court orders installation of CCTV cameras in all trial courts, tribunals

Supreme Court has ordered installation of CCTV cameras in all states and union territories to record proceedings in trial courts and tribunals across the country.

The apex court has asked High Courts to devise modalities and complete the exercise as soon as possible.

It has also given one month to the Union Ministry of Information and Technology, and Department of Justice to come up with standards of technical specifications and pricing of these CCTV cameras.

The SC also said that it too should be open to audio and video recordings.

A bench led by Justice Adarsh Kumar Gorl and Uday Lalit



observed:

Installation of CCTV cameras is useful to achieve objective of transparent judicial system.

It was time that every word uttered during the proceedings should be recorded. We are a court of records. Every word should be recorded. We don't see any problem with this.

SC asked all 24 high courts to initiate the process of installing CCTV cameras inside courtrooms and also in the court precincts.

We make it clear nobody will record the proceedings without authorisation from the High Court concerned.

Third party will not be given such recordings and that these recordings will be deleted after a specific time period.