The Supreme Court has agreed to examine a writ petition challenging the use of facial recognition technology and other biometric surveillance mechanisms by the police at protest sites.
The plea has been filed by CPI(M) Rajya Sabha MP A.A. Rahim, raising questions over the legality of deploying sophisticated digital surveillance tools to identify and track individuals participating in peaceful demonstrations. The matter was mentioned before a Bench comprising Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V. Mohana. The Bench agreed to consider the petition and tagged it with other pending matters concerning the recent student protests organised by the Cockroach Janata Party.
Senior Advocate Dr Menaka Guruswamy, appearing for Rahim, submitted that the petition stems from the alleged use of facial recognition and allied technologies by the Delhi Police during protests at Jantar Mantar. According to the submissions, private entities including Aditya Infotech Ltd and Dimension NXG Pvt Ltd were involved in processing and storing the surveillance data.
Guruswamy argued that the collection and retention of such information was undertaken without the consent of those subjected to surveillance and allegedly ran contrary to the safeguards embodied in the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023.
The petition raises a broader constitutional challenge to the use of biometric identification mechanisms in the context of peaceful assemblies. It contends that the Delhi Police’s standing orders governing protests, as well as the Criminal Procedure (Identification) Act, 2022, do not authorise indiscriminate biometric surveillance of individuals participating in a civilian gathering.
According to the plea, surveillance infrastructure deployed at the protest included CCTV cameras, drones, a mobile command-and-control vehicle and other digital tools capable of capturing and processing images of protesters, journalists and other persons present at the venue. The petitioner has characterised the alleged exercise as one undertaken without a clearly identifiable statutory foundation.
The challenge invokes the Supreme Court’s landmark 2017 privacy ruling in K.S. Puttaswamy v. Union of India, under which State action infringing the fundamental right to privacy must satisfy the constitutional requirements of legality, legitimate State purpose and proportionality. The petitioner argues that the indiscriminate collection of biometric information at a peaceful protest fails to meet these constitutional thresholds.
The plea also raises concerns regarding the subsequent life-cycle of the data—particularly its retention, processing, sharing and potential linkage with criminal databases. It seeks greater transparency regarding the technologies deployed, the databases accessed and the private vendors involved in handling the information.
Among the reliefs sought is the creation of a mechanism through which individuals affected by such surveillance can ascertain whether their biometric information has been collected and, where legally permissible, seek access to or deletion of such data. The petition also seeks directions concerning the preservation, cessation of use and permanent deletion of biometric information allegedly held by private entities.
The Supreme Court’s decision to entertain the plea brings the expanding interface between law-enforcement technology and constitutional freedoms before the Court. At the heart of the proceedings is the question whether the State can subject participants in a peaceful democratic assembly to biometric identification and surveillance without a specific and constitutionally compliant legal framework.
The case is titled A.A. Rahim M.P. v. Union of India, Diary No. 45049/2026.
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