Jayasooryan N.V vs State Of Kerala
2021 Latest Caselaw 22844 Ker

                IN THE HIGH COURT OF KERALA AT ERNAKULAM
                                PRESENT
              THE HONOURABLE MR. JUSTICE P.V.KUNHIKRISHNAN
   TUESDAY, THE 23RD DAY OF NOVEMBER 2021 / 2ND AGRAHAYANA, 1943
                        WP(C) NO. 24515 OF 2021
PETITIONER:

          JAYASOORYAN N.V.
          AGED 67 YEARS
          S/O. RAGHAVAN, NAMBOODIVAYALIL, MOKERY AMSOM DESOM,
          VATAKARA TALUK, VATTOLI P. O., KUNNUMMEL VILLAGE,
          KOZHIKODE DT., KERALA, PIN - 673507.
          BY ADVS.
          T.SANJAY
          SANIL KUMAR G.
          MIDHUN R.


RESPONDENTS:

    1     STATE OF KERALA
          REPRESENTED BY THE CHIEF SECRETARY,
          GOVERNMENT SECRETARIAT,
          THIRUVANANTHAPURAM - 695 001.
    2     THE STATE POLICE CHIEF
          STATE POLICE HEADQUARTERS,
          VELLAYAMBALAM,
          THIRUVANANTHAPURAM - 695 010.
    3     THE SUPERINTENDENT OF POLICE
          KOZHIKODE RURAL,
          CHORODE PANCHAYATH,
          VADKARA, KERALA - 673101.
    4     SHO
          KUTTIYADI POLICE STATION,
          SH 38, URATH,
          KUTTIADY, KERALA - 673508.
    5     JITHINRAJ N. V.
          S/O. PREMARAJAN,
          NAMBOODIVAYALIL,
 WP(C) NO.24515/2021
                           2

        MOKERY AMSAM DESAM,
        VATAKARA TALUK,
        VATTOI P. O.,
        KUNNUMME VILLAGE,
        KOZHIKODE, KERALA, PIN - 673507.
        BY ADVS.
        S.RAJEEV - R5
        V.VINAY
        M.S.ANEER
        SARATH K.P.



        SMT.DEEPA NARAYANAN, SENIOR GOVERNMENT
        PLEADER



     THIS WRIT PETITION (CIVIL) HAVING COME UP FOR
ADMISSION ON 23.11.2021, THE COURT ON THE SAME DAY
DELIVERED THE FOLLOWING:
 WP(C) NO.24515/2021
                                    3


             P.V.KUNHIKRISHNAN, J
       -------------------------------
           W.P.(C)No.24515 OF 2021
      --------------------------------
  Dated this the 23rd day of November, 2021

                         JUDGMENT

The above writ petition is filed with

following prayers:

"i) to declare that the petitioner and his family members residing with him are entitled to the right to privacy and be protected from the prying voyeuristic eyes of the 5th respondent who has installed CCTV cameras focused on to the house and pathway of the petitioner;

ii) to issue a writ of mandamus or any other appropriate writ, direction or order, directing the 2nd respondent to direct the 3rd respondent and his officers to dismantle the CCTV cameras which are installed by the 5th respondent, and focused on the house and pathway of the petitioner, after conducting an inquiry by a high- ranking officer by keeping out the 4 th respondent SHO;

iii) to issue a writ of mandamus or any other appropriate writ, direction or order, directing the 2nd respondent to consider and pass orders in Ext.P4 representation submitted by the petitioner after affording him an opportunity of WP(C) NO.24515/2021

hearing;

iv) to issue such other reliefs as this Hon'ble Court may deem fit and proper in the facts and circumstances of the case."

2. The petitioner is a senior citizen.

According to the petitioner, 5th respondent

installed a CCTV camera in his property

facing the house of the petitioner and

capturing scenes illegally and misusing the

same. It is the case of the petitioner that

the daughters and wife of the petitioner are

being exposed to the sadistic joys of a

voyeur which needs to be stopped

immediately. The petitioner submitted

Ext.P4 representation before the 2nd and 3rd

respondents. The prayer of the petitioner

is to issue appropriate direction to the

Police authorities to do the needful.

3. Heard the learned counsel for the

petitioner, the learned Government Pleader

and the learned counsel for the 5th

respondent.

WP(C) NO.24515/2021

4. The learned counsel for the

petitioner reiterated his contentions in the

writ petition. On the other hand, the

learned Government Pleader made available a

report dated 13.11.2021 submitted by the

Inspector, Station House Officer, Kuttiady

Police Station in which it is stated that

the apprehension of the petitioner is

without any basis. The learned Government

Pleader submitted that a criminal case is

also registered in connection with the above

dispute. The learned counsel for the 5th

respondent submitted that the allegation in

the writ petition are absolutely incorrect.

The counsel also submitted that there are

several civil and criminal disputes pending

between the petitioner and the 5th respondent

family and because of this, a false case is

foisted against the petitioner and the writ

petition itself is mischievous and thus the

writ petition may be disposed. WP(C) NO.24515/2021

5. I considered the contentions of the

petitioner and the respondents. It will be

better to extract the relevant portion of

the report submitted by the Inspector,

Station House Officer, Kuttiady Police

Station.

"It was Kuttiady police whom the writ petitioner approached at first for the matter mentioned in the writ. Detailed enquiry had conducted by Kuttiady police and the counter petitioner was called to the police station and his statement in this regard was recorded. Police Checked the CCTV cameras and the display screen which can be easily seen by any member of his family including his mother, wife and three (3) children as it was installed inside the house and found that no camera focused towards the house of the petitioner as well as no evidence of misusing the vision of the CCTV cameras. Considering all the factors found in the enquiry and counter petitioner's statement, Kuttiady police informed the petitioner that police can not take any step against the counter petitioner.

The petitioner again placed the same complaint before the District Police Chief Kozhikode Rural in Dec.2020 and WP(C) NO.24515/2021

then the DIG of Police Kozhikode in Sept.2021. Kuttiady police again covered the same procedure effectively and submitted the reply stating the same finding to the petitioner as before and the report thereof to the higher officers attaching the copy of the report to the petitioner was also submitted.

A case was also registered against the 5th respondent in the writ by the petitioner as Kuttiady police station Cr.No.369/2015 u/s 323, 452, 354, 294(b) read with 34 IPC in the hon'ble Court of JFCM, Nadapuram as CC 999/2015 which is still under trial."

6. From the above statement it is clear

that the officer concerned conducted an

enquiry. But the petitioner is not

satisfied with the same. According to the

petitioner, after the visit of the police,

the cameras are turned towards the house of

the petitioner. The counsel for the

petitioner states that the Station House

Officer is colluding with the 5th respondent.

The same is denied by the counsel for the 5th WP(C) NO.24515/2021

respondent. It seems that, civil and

criminal proceedings are pending between the

petitioner and the 5th respondent. Hence, I

do not want to make any observation about

the merit of the case because that will

affect the criminal and civil proceedings

pending before the court concerned. The

grievance of the petitioner is that Ext.P4

is not considered by the 2nd and 3rd

respondents properly. I think there can be

a direction to the 3rd respondent to consider

Ext.P4 after giving notice to the petitioner

and the 5th respondent. I make it clear

that, I have not considered the matter on

merit and the 3rd respondent is free to take

appropriate steps in accordance to law and

after conducting an inspection of the

premises.

Therefore, this writ petition is

disposed of in the following manner:

(i) The 3rd respondent is directed to WP(C) NO.24515/2021

consider Ext.P4 representation after giving

notice to the petitioner and the 5th

respondent, as expeditiously as possible, at

any rate, within one month from the date of

receipt of a copy of this judgment.

(ii) The petitioner will produce a

copy of this judgment along with a copy of

the writ petition with exhibits before the

3rd respondent for compliance.

(iii) All the contentions of the

petitioner and the 5th respondent are left

open.

Sd/-

P.V.KUNHIKRISHNAN JUDGE DM WP(C) NO.24515/2021

APPENDIX OF WP(C) 24515/2021

PETITIONER EXHIBITS EXHIBIT P1 TRUE COPY OF SKETCH SHOWING APPROXIMATE POSITIONS CCTV CAMERA AND THE RESPECTIVE PROPERTIES. EXHIBIT P2 TRUE COPY OF THE FIR DATED 12.07.2015.

EXHIBIT P3 PHOTOGRAPHS OF CCTV NIGHT VISION CAMERAS INSTALLED BY THE 5TH RESPONDENT IN FRONT OF THE HOUSE AND PATHWAY OF PETITIONER.

EXHIBIT P3(A) CLOSE-UP PHOTOGRAPH OF NIGHT VISION CCTV CAMERAS INSTALLED BY THE 5TH RESPONDENT IN FRONT OF THE HOUSE AND PATHWAY OF THE PETITIONER.

EXHIBIT P4       TRUE   COPY     REPRESENTATION    DATED
                 11.08.2021      SUBMITTED    BY     THE
                 PETITIONER       BEFORE    THE      2ND
                 RESPONDENT.

RESPONDENTS EXHIBITS :NIL



                      //TRUE COPY//

                       PA TO JUDGE