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SC to hear facial recognition use at protest sites
Deccan Herald··13 Aug
The Supreme Court on August 13 agreed to hear a plea by CPI(M) MP A A Rahim against Delhi Police facial recognition at protest sites. A bench led by Chief Justice Surya Kant tagged the writ with pending Jantar Mantar NEET cases. The petition says the surveillance has no backing in standing orders or the Identification Act, 2022.
Prism
What It Means For You
- If you attended or reported from Jantar Mantar, the court will now examine whether your face or fingerprints could be collected without a specific law.
- Protesters and journalists named in the petition can note the court had earlier asked that recorded data be preserved and not put in the public domain for now.
- Anyone using a phone at a Delhi protest can see private vendors and national fingerprint databases are part of what the MP wants disclosed and deleted.
What's Happening
- On August 13 the Supreme Court agreed to hear Rahim's writ against facial recognition and biometric surveillance at protest sites.
- The bench tagged it with existing petitions on Delhi Police tools used during the Cockroach Janata Party NEET sit-in at Jantar Mantar.
- The plea says neither police standing orders nor the Criminal Procedure Identification Act, 2022 authorise biometric scanning of a civilian assembly.
Why Protest Scanning Reached the Constitution Bench Track
- K S Puttaswamy v Union of India 2017 held that any privacy intrusion needs legal backing, a legitimate aim and a proportionate method.
- The petition says police once described facial recognition as a tool for missing and unidentified dead persons, not for mapping lawful assemblies.
- Delhi Police have separately said their systems flagged 2873 people with cases including murder, rape and child abuse among visitors to the July protest site.
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