HC asks Maha to implement order on CCTVs at police stations

The Bombay High Court today asked the Maharashtra government to file, within four weeks, compliance report on its earlier order to install CCTV cameras at all the police stations in the state.
The court passed the order after the lawyers representing petitioners demanding CBI probe of custodial deaths alleged that the order of August 13 last year had not been implemented.
Government lawyer Mankuvar Deshmukh said the process of installation of CCTV cameras at some police stations had started, but it would take time to cover all the police stations.
However, petitioners' lawyer advocate Yug Choudhary said the August 13 order had asked for immediate installation. In reality, the order was not being followed in toto, he said.

The division bench headed by Justice V M Kanade then asked the government lawyer if there were any administrative or financial issues.
Advising the government to come up with a time-bound programme on installation, the bench directed that a compliance affidavit be filed within a month.
With regard to another PIL, the court was informed that the government had yet to file action-taken-report on the steps taken to prevent custodial deaths, despite a court order in 2008. The judges asked the government to file the action-taken report at the next hearing.
During a hearing last year, the High Court had noted that 23.48 per cent of the custodial deaths in the country in the last 15 years had taken place in Maharashtra, according to the National Crime Records Bureau.