Police officials seen wearing the Body Camera during a protest against CEC Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar near Chief Electoral Officer Delhi.
| Photo Credit: Sushil Kumar Verma
The Delhi High Court on Wednesday (October 7, 2026) asked the Centre to consider a representation a petition seeking standard operating procedures for police and rapid action force personnel to use ‘always-on’ body-worn cameras during crowd-control and protest-management duties.
The court asked the government to communicate its decision to the petitioner within six months, while disposing of the public interest litigation (PIL).
The court was hearing the PIL, filed by advocate Chahat Raghav, seeking direction for constitution of an expert committee to formulate a binding SOP, making the use of body-worn cameras mandatory and continuous (always-on) for every member of Delhi Police and Rapid Action Force deployed on crowd-control, protest-management or dispersal duty, from the commencement of deployment until stand-down.
The plea also sought a comprehensive regime governing the storage, integrity, retention and evidentiary use of footage recorded through such cameras.
During the hearing, the court asked how the absence of body-worn cameras affects the rights of public at large.
To this, senior advocate Akhil Sibal, representing the petitioner, said when violence occurs there are allegations and counter allegations of violence and the issue pertains to accountability as to who is perpetrating violence and the use of excessive force by police.
He said there has to be some way for fixing the accountability.
Mr Sibal said cameras are being used by police officials but they are used in a very sporadic way. He said use of cameras was essential because allegations of excessive force used by police or protestors running and doing violence keep surfacing.
“We need a system so that the allegations are not left to private persons who are videographing,” Mr Sibal added.
Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Chetan Sharma submitted that there were guidelines for organising protests in which videography aspect was taken care of.
The petitioner said the plea has been filed in the backdrop of the July protests at Jantar Mantar involving the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) and climate activist Sonam Wangchuk.
The plea said in the July protests, the use of force by Delhi Police and Rapid Action Force (RAF) upon student protesters was documented almost entirely through unofficial mobile-phone footage recorded by bystanders.
Published – October 08, 2026 04:24 am IST
