The Supreme Court today registered a suo motu case over the lack of functional CCTV cameras in police stations across the country. A bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta took cognisance of a media report stating that 11 people have died in police custody in Rajasthan during the first eight months of 2025. According to the media report, police often do not provide CCTV footage in custodial death cases.

The police gave various reasons for withholding CCTV footage, including technical faults, lack of storage, ongoing investigations, or legal restrictions. The Supreme Court has already mandated the installation of CCTV cameras in police stations to maintain transparency and to curb instances of custodial torture.

The top court had directed that the SHO of every police station be made responsible for maintaining CCTV data, backing up recordings, and fixing faults. It said that the state and Union Territory governments should ensure that CCTV cameras are installed in each and every police station functioning in the respective state and Union Territory.