SC gives positive nod to Delhi Govt’s dicision to install CCTV in schools
New Delhi : Manish Sisodia, the Deputy Chief Minister of Delhi Friday dismissed concerns about safety and privacy of students over the government’s plan to install CCTV cameras in classrooms. He said that the live feed will be available only to parents and the access will be password protected.
His statement came after the Supreme Court dismissed a PIL challenging the AAP government’s decision to install closed circuit television (CCTV) cameras in classrooms of Delhi schools and live stream the feed to parents of students.
A Supreme Court bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi Friday did not agree with the PIL’s contention that the installation and transmission of live feeds of CCTV to the parents would infringe the fundamental right to privacy as the kids are incapable to give consent and the parents’ approval has not been taken.
“The feed of classrooms will only be made available to parents, who will be able to access it after getting a secure password for a smartphone for a limited period of time daily without any audio. Teachers, parents and students are happy with this latest initiative and our government will prove the sceptics wrong once again like it has done repeatedly on its initiatives in the field of education,” Sisodia said in a statement.
“We have decided to install the CCTV cameras after careful planning. Well thought out Standing Operating Procedures (SoPs) have been put in place. It is beyond any reasonable understanding as to why cynics are creating a hue and cry about the project,” he added.
The live-streaming of CCTV feeds will be done to random people which will be a breach of privacy. There were adolescents in schools and it will be a breach of their privacy if the CCTV feed was live streamed, the Public Interest Litigation claimed.
