HC issues notice to Delhi govt over plea challenges live-streaming of children's classroom
Feb 22, 2022
New Delhi [India], February 22 : The Delhi High Court on Tuesday issued notice to Delhi Government and others on a plea challenging installation of Closed Circuit Televisions (CCTVs) cameras inside classrooms of Government schools and the consequent live-streaming of such video footage to third persons.
The division bench of Justice DN Patel and Justice Jyoti Singh on Tuesday issued notice in a petition filed by the Delhi Parents Association and the Government School Teachers' Association, Delhi against the Government of NCT Delhi and four other respondents (including private firm - Technosys Security System Private Limited) and listed the matter for March 30, 2022 for further hearing.
The Petition challenges the installation of 1.5 lakh CCTV cameras inside classrooms of Government and private schools and the dissemination of the live stream footage emanating from the same to unauthorized persons, it stated.
The Petition challenges the cabinet decision of the Delhi government for allegedly being violative of Articles 14, 19, and 21 of the Constitution of India. The Petitioners were represented by counsel Jai Anant Dehadrai, Sidharth Arora, Jaskaran Singh Chawla and Soujanya Ketharaj.
The petition highlighted three fundamental violations of privacy inherent in the impugned decision.
First, the installation of CCTV cameras inside classrooms, without obtaining specific consent from either the students and their parents and the teachers is a gross and direct violation of the Fundamental Right to Privacy as held in the 9-Judge Constitutional Bench decision of the Apex Court. Such consent must be informed, specific and thus cannot be a one-time broad-based and all-encompassing parental authorization.
Second, the act of live-streaming footage, similarly without specific consent, is a further violation of the Fundamental Right to Privacy.
Third, in the complete absence of a data protection regime or any other statutory/regulatory framework to protect citizens' data, the twin acts of obtaining and then storing children's data on private computer servers is fraught with danger and is thus also violative of the Fundamental Right to Privacy.
It stated that the petitioners before the Court are directly affected by the impugned decisions, in as much as they transgress not only their own Fundamental Rights but also those of the students they teach.
The plea further stated that the petitioners are especially concerned with the storage of the video-footage of their wards, in the absence of a secure infrastructure and they are opposed to the idea of cross-sharing classroom footage with other parents and inevitably with unauthorized third persons.
