The Delhi High Court on Tuesday issued notice to the Delhi government and others on a plea challenging the installation of Closed-Circuit Television (CCTV) cameras inside classrooms of government schools and live-streaming of such video footage to third persons.
Justice DN Patel and Justice J. Singh on Tuesday issued notices in a petition filed by Delhi Parents Association and Government School Teachers Association, Delhi against the Government of NCT of Delhi and four other respondents (including private firm – Technosis Security Systems Pvt Ltd) and listed the matter for further hearing on March 30, 2022.
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The impugned judgment highlighted three fundamental breaches of confidentiality:
First, a fundamental infringement of privacy:
Similarly, the act of live-streaming footage without specific consent is another violation of the fundamental right to privacy.
In the complete absence of a data protection regime or any other statutory/regulatory framework to protect the data of citizens, the dual act of receiving and then storing children’s data on private computer servers is fraught with danger and thus violates the fundamental right. is also a violation. Privacy.
Installation of CCTV cameras inside classrooms, without obtaining specific consent from students and their parents and teachers, is a gross and direct violation of the fundamental right to privacy enshrined in a 9-judge Constitutional Bench judgment of the Supreme Court. Such consent has to be informed, specific and thus may not be the once broad-based and omnipresent parental authority.
The petition challenges the installation of 1.5 lakh CCTV cameras inside classrooms of government and private schools and dissemination of live stream footage to unauthorized persons.
The petition challenges the decision of the cabinet of the Delhi government for allegedly violating Articles 14, 19 and 21 of the Constitution of India.
The petition further states that the petitioners are particularly concerned with the storage of video-footage of their children, in the absence of a secure infrastructure and they are against the idea of sharing the classroom footage with other parents and are essentially with the unauthorized third. persons.
It said that the petitioners before the court are directly affected by impugned judgments in as much as they violate not only their own fundamental rights but also the rights of the students they teach.
