RANCHI: The Jharkhand High Court has taken a stern view of the prolonged delay in the installation of CCTV cameras across police stations in the state, summoning concerned officials again despite the sanction of administrative approvals and dedicated budgetary allocations. The ambitious project, designed to install 8,854 night-vision and audio-video surveillance cameras across 606 police stations, remains in limbo even after the state government approved ₹134 crore for its execution. The judicial intervention is part of the ongoing monitoring by the High Court to enforce a nationwide Supreme Court mandate aimed at curbing custodial excesses, upholding human rights, and ensuring institutional transparency inside police establishments.
Technical Complications Stall ₹134 Crore Surveillance Project
The Jharkhand Cabinet granted administrative sanction of ₹134 crore in January 2026 to procure and install the 8,854 surveillance units across the 606 designated police stations. To make surveillance effective under low-light and overnight conditions, the project specifications call for high-resolution cameras equipped with both night-vision capabilities and comprehensive audio-video recording functions. The state assigned the operational responsibility for procurement and implementation to the Jharkhand Agency for Promotion of Information Technology (JAP-IT).
Despite the release of funds and the completion of policy-level procedures, the project has failed to move to the ground execution stage due to ongoing technical complications and procedural bottlenecks in the tendering framework. JAP-IT initially floated a tender for the procurement on February 7, but the process was subsequently scrapped on technical grounds. The agency cited the need to incorporate critical technical modifications, evaluate bidder feedback gathered during pre-bid consultations, and introduce greater transparency into the procurement model before proceeding with a fresh process.
Cabinet Clears Pending Consultant Dues Worth ₹1.17 Crore
While the procurement of physical surveillance hardware has stalled, the state government has acted to resolve pending administrative costs linked to the advisory phase of the initiative. The Jharkhand Police Housing Corporation Limited had appointed Ernst & Young LLP as the project consultant under a departmental approval dated March 2, 2022. To settle outstanding financial liabilities accrued during the consultation period, the state Cabinet on October 27, 2026, approved a payment of ₹1,17,52,800 to the firm.
Although the release of the pending consultant fee addresses an outstanding financial obligation, it has done little to resolve the core roadblock surrounding the delayed hardware installation. Inter-departmental coordination gaps and administrative indecision have continued to stall progress, leaving the wider operational goal unfulfilled despite the state cabinet’s financial clearances.
High Court Enforces Supreme Court Mandate on Station Transparency
The directive to place all functional areas of police stations under constant CCTV coverage originates from a landmark Supreme Court order intended to prevent human rights violations during custodial detentions. The prescribed framework requires uninterrupted audio and video coverage across all key points of a police station, ensuring that any recorded footage remains admissible and available for independent examination by judicial authorities during probes into alleged police misconduct.
With the High Court actively overseeing compliance and demanding explanations for the persistent lag, the state government and JAP-IT face mounting scrutiny over the lack of a definitive installation schedule. The executing authorities have been summoned to place their explanations on record, detail the remedial steps being taken to resolve the tender bottlenecks, and provide a concrete path forward to complete the installation across all 606 police stations without further delay.
