Shillong: The High Court of Meghalaya issued a sharp rebuke to state police this week regarding dozens of dead security cameras. Chief Justice Revati Mohite Dere and Justice W. Diengdoh blasted the lack of progress on repairs during a recent review.
Police records show 129 cameras in Shillong and 50 in Williamnagar are offline. Officers blamed lightning and gear failure for the outages. The court found this excuse hollow. The bench noted that while Police Headquarters requested inspections in March 2026, nothing happened. The court stated, "no serious action or course correction appeared to have been taken since the issues were identified."
The state pitched a 25.24 crore rupee upgrade plan to the Ministry of Home Affairs. This proposal includes a centralized monitoring dashboard and equipment updates. Judges remain skeptical about when the state actually sent the request to the Centre. The court ruled the current state of affairs violates Supreme Court mandates from the Paramvir Singh Saini case.
Officials must now submit a full chart detailing installation dates, camera status, footage storage duration, and maintenance contract details. The bench ordered the Union of India, CBI, NIA, ED, NCB, and the Department of Revenue Intelligence to join the case. All parties return to court on August 20.
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