CCTV cameras without the flat owner's consent is invasion of privacy: Bombay High Court
June 18, 2018In a bid to protect the privacy of people, the Bombay High Court has ruled that installing CCTV cameras outside someone’s residence or flat without their consent and keeping a check on their movement is an invasion of their privacy.
The decision is a result of a notice of motion filed by a man and his two daughters, against his third daughter and her husband. The issue arose when the man’s wife died, leaving him and his third daughter as co-landlords of the house. The third daughter, in April, installed CCTV cameras in-front of her father’s house without their consent to monitor their movements. She also locked the entrance door to the common terrace, thereby preventing her father’s access to the water tank and the lift room. She used to constantly click pictures of her father and the people in the house without their consent.
When asked for the reason behind her actions by the Court, she answered that her father and sisters were in breach of an order by the small causes court as they had allowed third-party tenants into their house. The Court
A bench of J. S. J. Kathawalla ruled in favour of the father and his daughters, stating that the acts of the third daughter were only to annoy the other family members and ordered the third daughter to remove the CCTV cameras as well as stop clicking pictures without consent. She has also been directed to open access to the common terrace.