The Delhi Government has told the Delhi High Court that one of the major factors for the installation of CCTV cameras in classrooms is to ensure the safety and security of children studying in the schools.
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government, in its affidavit, stated that the installation of CCTV cameras was done in light of the rampant incidents of sexual abuse and bullying. It also stated that the CCTV camera does not infringe on the right to privacy. “A reasonable expectation of privacy, though not surrendered in a public place, however, the expectation itself would vary from an intimate zone to a public space like a classroom”, the affidavit read.
The Delhi government submitted that the impugned decision was not a “knee-jerk reaction” to the child abuse reports in September 2017, it was planned and reviewed for more than two years prior to September 2017. “It was in the wake of incidents of child abuse reports, and an emergency meeting was called by Delhi, Chief Minister on September 11, 2017.
During the meeting, in the interest of accountability towards parents and to ensure disciplined conduct in classrooms, the CM directed access to live/recorded feeds of children in the classroom to their parents”, the affidavit mentioned.
The affidavit stated that another objective of the order was to ensure teachers’ attendance and punctuality in classrooms. It submitted that the goal of the project was to improve the teaching-learning process and provide feedback to them to improve learning outcomes.
Furthermore, the affidavit stated that in balancing the interest of the State to ensure the safety and protection of the students along with the right to privacy in a classroom, it is to be borne in mind the extent to which the expectation of privacy would be reasonable in a public classroom
The affidavit submitted by the Delhi government also stated that the present petition is not maintainable as the same reliefs were sought by a petitioner before the Supreme Court in Amber Tickoo v. GNCTD & Ors, which was subsequently dismissed.
The State government has filed the response in a plea filed by the Delhi Parents Association and Government School Teachers Association, challenging the State government’s order to install CCTV cameras inside classrooms of government schools and live-streaming of the same.
The plea filed through Advocate Jai Dehadrai sought to quash and set aside the two cabinet decisions dated September 11, 2017, and December 11, 2017, passed by the State for the installation of CCTV cameras inside classrooms of government schools and consequent live-streaming of the same to third persons.
Dehadrai highlighted three fundamental violations of the privacy inherent in the impugned decision. One of which is that the installation of CCTV cameras inside classrooms, without obtaining specific consent from either the students and their parents or the teachers is a gross and direct violation of the fundamental right to privacy as held in K.S Puttaswamy v. Union of India, he submitted.
The petitioner associations also opposed the idea of cross-sharing classroom footage with other parents and inevitably with unauthorised third persons. The plea stated that their fears are exacerbated by the current reality of video footage morphing and abuse, as well as its possible dissemination on social media and the internet at large.
