The day is not far away in a metro city where everyone, whether walking on the street or going to office will be captured in CCTV cameras. A law-abiding Indian citizen should never have any kind of problem with CCTV Cameras. In a metro city like Delhi, we can see CCTV Installed almost every area in our daily life.

Every educated people in metro cities welcome CCTV to fight against crime. It can also help in preventing criminals from committing any kind of crime as the presence of a camera compels criminals to follow the law.

The Laws Relating to CCTV

There is no such restriction on the installation of CCTV by law but the installation of CCTV in order to record under someone's personal property maybe an illegal act under the Personal Data Protection Bill 2018.

Is it Legal?

Yes, it is perfectly legal as long as due care is taken. Almost every person who installs CCTV in their home are primarily concerned to prevent would-be intruders from break-in to their home or property.

Installing CCTV is legal and you canÃ?¢??t objection if your neighbor decides to install CCTV. For example, CCTV footage often help police in catching the criminal of crime that is committed, such as a theft of a car parked outside your home or to identify individuals who are engaging in Anti-Social Behavior.

That said, in such cases, the CCTV system you might have at home is more likely to act as a deterrent. This is simply because in a residential area would-be criminals are likely to be far more aware of residential CCTV installations, and so are more likely to avoid doing anything which might contravene the law.

In cases of people who are able to provide video evidence of crimes or acts of anti-social behavior being committed outside their own homes, that will usually come about as a result of some covert filming using a camcorder or digital camera.

When you could be Breaking the Law for Having CCTV at Home

While home installation of CCTV does not fall under the jurisdiction of the Data Protection Act, if the home installation has not been carried out correctly or is being used for a purpose other than for which it was designed, then you may have a case for taking further action under totally different laws.

For example, if you have a camera which is pointed directly at another personÃ?¢??s property or itÃ?¢??s suspected that it can capture part or all of a neighbor's property, they might have a case to take action against you under legislation covered by the Human Rights Act. They might have sufficient grounds to say that they have had their privacy violated, that your CCTV system is tantamount to harassment and even voyeurism.

In such cases, they can get the police involved if you're not able to come to some agreement with regards to what the camera(s) can capture and to make modifications to the installation, if necessary.