Kerala HC dismisses Congress leaders' plea for court-monitored probe into AI camera project

Kochi | The Kerala High Court on Wednesday dismissed Congress leaders V D Satheesan and Ramesh Chennithala's plea seeking a court-monitored probe into the installation of artificial intelligence (AI) cameras under the Safe Kerala initiative, saying they failed to provide any evidence of corruption.

A bench of Chief Justice Nitin Jamdar and Justice Basant Balaji said that a thorough examination of the Congress leaders' PIL petition reveals no compelling situation to invoke the court's jurisdiction and pass orders.

"In this case, the petitioners' (Satheesan and Chennithala) request for an inquiry is based on unsubstantiated claims without credible documentary evidence of collusion, predetermination, or corruption.

"Therefore, initiating a broad judicial probe into a major public infrastructure project without a prima facie demonstration of wrongdoing, supported by concrete evidence, would constitute an unwarranted 'fishing and roving inquiry'," the bench said.

The 90-page petition "fails to pinpoint" any specific instances of mala fides or corruption and instead relies on general allegations, it said.

The court said that such an exercise, based solely on suspicion and general allegations, was not the intended purpose of a public interest litigation (PIL).

The bench pointed out that PILs were not designed as a forum "for settling political disputes, addressing personal grievances, or challenging every government decision without a solid factual basis".

It said that the Congress leaders did not approach the court when the administrative sanction was granted in July 2020 or when the project's final approval was issued in April 2023.

Instead, they moved the court only after the project was fully implemented and went live and the first payment was due to the Kerala State Electronics Development Corporation Ltd (Keltron).

"The delay in approaching the court with this PIL is considered fatal to their case," the bench said.

Regarding the contention in the plea about data privacy and the security of collected information, the bench said that all the images of violations were stored on the NIC server under control of the central government and there was no possibility of it being transferred elsewhere.

Hence, it "can be safely concluded that there was no breach of data privacy as contended by the petitioners", the court said.

The bench further said that after thoroughly reviewing the claims in the plea, the counter-affidavits, and the detailed arguments from both sides, it was "compelled to conclude" that the petitioners "have failed to provide any evidence" to reasonably infer the existence of mala fides, illegality, corruption, or procedural impropriety in the contract for the AI camera installation under the Safe Kerala Project.

"The allegations, despite their serious nature, remain unsubstantiated by factual pleadings that would justify invoking the extraordinary jurisdiction of this court under Article 226 of the Constitution of India for a court-monitored inquiry.

Based on the discussions above, it is our considered view that this Public Interest Litigation petition lacks substantive merit and does not meet the established legal threshold for judicial intervention in the state's contractual matters. As such, we are not inclined to order a court-monitored enquiry into the allegations that the petitioners have raised," the court said.

The Kerala government had in 2020 entered into an agreement with Keltron for the project.

In April 2023, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan had inaugurated the 'Safe Kerala' project, which included installation of the AI cameras, envisaged to reduce road accidents and traffic violations in the state.