Court Directs Government to Mandate Body‑Cams in Crowd‑Control Ops

The Delhi High Court has ordered the central government to issue a Standard Operating Procedure for compulsory body‑camera deployment by Delhi Police and the Rapid Action Force during protest and crowd‑control operations. Acting Chief Justice Nitin Vasudev Sambare and Justice Arun Bhardwaj gave the government a six‑month window to decide on the matter. The directive follows a public‑interest litigation filed by lawyer Chahat Raghav after the July 2026 Jantar‑Mantar demonstrations that resulted in injuries to over fifty law‑enforcement personnel. Senior counsel Akhil Sibal argued that the current reliance on external videographers fails to capture the actions of officers on the ground, and that body‑cameras can provide transparent, accountable records without the privacy concerns linked to facial‑recognition technology. The Additional Solicitor General described the filing as a representation and assured a decision within the prescribed period. With the government’s agreement to consider the representation, the court closed the PIL.