Recording video of crime scenes would be a major step in digitisation of criminal investigation.
In a giant leap towards digitisation of criminal investigation, police in six major cities, including Delhi and Mumbai, will mandatorily conduct videography of a crime scene, the Centre has told the Supreme Court.
Besides Delhi and Mumbai, the other cities where videography of crime scenes would be mandatory are Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Bangalore and Chandigarh.
The top court had in April asked the Centre to prepare a plan for introducing videography in criminal investigations to strengthen the rule of law.
Taking the lead, the Gujarat Police has set up a central server which is connected to a specially designed application called "Mobile Pocket Cop".
The app can be downloaded on a cell phone provided to every police station for use in an investigation.
A bench of justices U U Lalit and D Y Chandrachud sought a reply in four weeks from home secretary, Gujarat government, on the aspect of testing of another app developed by the Bureau of Police Research and Development as proof of concept.
"Since sufficient progress on the front has been made by Gujarat, we would expect the authorities to develop a comprehensive and user friendly model which can then be used by all other states," the bench said while issuing a notice to the Gujarat home secretary.
Advocate Shirin Khajuria, appearing for the Centre, said as per compliance of the court's earlier order a central oversight body (COB) has been constituted and a special secretary (internal security) has filed an affidavit in this regard.
She said the first meeting of COB was convened on May 24 to discuss the implementation of the plan for use of videography at a crime scene and other issues.
The affidavit filed by the Centre said a plan for crime scene videography would be implemented in phases. In the first phase, the plan will be implemented in six major cities, it stated.
The Centre has sought another six months from the court for full-fledged implementation of the plan.