Advocate seeks action against agencies for not maintaining CCTV cameras around Delhi's Patiala House court

An advocate wrote a letter to Delhi High Court Chief Justice Dhirubhai Naranbhai Patel apprising him that CCTV cameras installed in and around Patiala House Court Complex are not working and urged him to take immediate action against erring police officers and related agencies responsible for the maintenance of the cameras.

The letter was written by Advocate Karan Singh, who is former Vice President of the New Delhi Bar Association.

He pointed out severe security threat to the life and property of not just the lawyers and the judges functioning out of the Patiala House Court premise but also to the highly secured neighbourhood surrounding the Patiala House Court Complex.

"There are 195 CCTV Cameras installed in an around Patiala House Court Complex out of which 90 CCTV Cameras are not working. The said fact came to light when on March 2, 2021, between 10:30 am to 11:30 am, a laptop belonging to one lawyer Yash Prakash was stolen from his chamber number 180 (near UCO Bank) in Patiala house court complex," read the letter.

When a complaint about the incident was filed with the police, the CCTV footage of the area was looked at by the concerned officials wherein one of the cameras had captured an unidentified person putting the said laptop in a bag, however, he could not be tracked thereafter as a lot of other cameras were non-functional and no further footage of this unidentified person could be procured, the advocate said.

He further added that a daily diary (DD) regarding the status and upkeep of these CCTV cameras has been sent to the DCP New Delhi along with various other senior police officials of Delhi Police and PWD.

The petitioner said the factum of the CCTV cameras being faulty and non-functional was in the knowledge of the senior officials of the Delhi Police and CPWD and yet no corrective measures were taken by them to repair the same.

He said that such actions by the concerned police officers and the CPWD officers is highly irresponsible conduct on their part and is unpardonable as it could lead to some serious incident resulting in loss of life and property of the persons visiting the Patiala House court premise.

He urged to constitute a high-level committee immediately to investigate the serious negligence on part of the concerned Police officials along with the CPWD officials.

( With inputs from ANI )