The Delhi High Court on Tuesday directed the chief secretary to decide a BJP MLA's representation alleging that CCTV cameras were being installed by the AAP government only in areas where leaders of the ruling party were elected from.

A bench of Acting Chief Justice Manmohan and Justice Tushar Rao Gedela said the legislator's petition filed before the court be treated as a representation by the Delhi chief secretary. It asked the senior official to decide the representation within two weeks while disposing of the plea.

Petitioner Abhay Verma, BJP MLA from Laxmi Nagar constituency in East Delhi, said former deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia, in his budget speech 2020-21, had granted sanctioned installation of CCTV cameras. The Delhi Public Works Department (PWD) minister was given the power of approving the installation of the CCTV cameras.

This led to misuse of such power as the Delhi government's PWD was following a "pick and choose policy whereby CCTV cameras were only installed in the areas where leaders of the ruling party were elected", the plea said.

During the hearing, Delhi government standing counsel Santosh Kumar Tripathi said installation of CCTV cameras was being carried out by the PWD in accordance with a survey conducted and there was no discrimination on the issue of installation of cameras.

Advocate Satya Ranjan Swain, representing Verma, submitted that the BJP MLA gave several representations to the authorities and the one given in 2022 was still pending.

He contended that the PWD minister had granted sanction for the installation of cameras in different assembly constituencies out of which only Laxmi Nagar was "deliberately" left out.

"As per the survey report of Bharat Electronics Limited, a total of 2,066 cameras were required for the whole Laxmi Nagar assembly constituency. The petitioner requested the chief secretary, Delhi government by his representation to look into the matter, however, no reply on the representation was received," it said.

The plea claimed that the non-installation of CCTV cameras was negatively impacting the law and order situation of the constituency and the safety and security of the residents were at high risk.

"Whilst the ruling party used the funds sanctioned by the (then) deputy chief minister, Manish Sisodia, the petitioner and the residents of his constituency were sidelined from rightful use of resources. The petitioner made another representation to the Chief Secretary but the reply is still awaited," it said.

The plea sought a direction to the authorities to grant sanction and install CCTV cameras in the Laxmi Nagar constituency according to the Bharat Electronic Limited survey.

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