AI traffic cameras: Kerala High Court dismisses Congress leaders' plea for probe into Safe Kerala project

The Kerala High Court on Wednesday dismissed a petition moved by Congress member and leader of the opposition in the Kerala assembly, VD Satheesan, and Congress leader and Member of the Legislative Assembly Ramesh Chennithala, seeking a court-monitored enquiry into the Safe Kerala Project, which involves the installation of Artificial Intelligence (AI) cameras across the State to reduce road accidents [VD Satheesan MLA & Anr. v State of Kerala & Ors.]..A Division Bench of Chief Justice Nitin Jamdar and Justice Basant Balaji observed that the petitioners had not made out a case to indicate that there were any malafides in the project or its execution."In this case, the Petitioners' request for an inquiry is based on unsubstantiated claims without credible documentary evidence of collusion, pre-determination, 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." Such an exercise, based solely on suspicion and general allegations, is not the intended purpose of a public interest litigation", the Court said. .The project, called "Automated Traffic Enforcement System for Safe Kerala" was envisioned by the Transport Department to install AI (artificial intelligence) cameras across the length and breadth of the State, which would capture traffic violations and issue notices to traffic rule violators.The petition alleged that the award of tenders for the installation of AI cameras resulted in nepotism, favouritism, and corruption, including a violation of privacy rights recognised in the Puttaswamy case..It was contended that by putting private entities in charge of information of citizens, the State government has violated the right to privacy, well as well as provisions of the Motor Vehicle Act and Rules.This transfer of power from the hands of statutory authorities to private companies was contended to be per se illegal, which in turn makes the fines imposed unenforceable in the eyes of the law, the plea added. .It was also claimed that the project involved a pyramid style of corruption right from the start when the work order was issued to a State government company called KELTRON, even though the finance department had raised serious objections regarding their capability to execute the same.Further, while awarding subsequent tenders and sub-leasing the SLA (service-level agreement), to SRIT India Pvt. Ltd and Presadio Technologies Pvt. Ltd., respectively, there was a lot of corruption involved, the opposition leaders claimed. Therefore, they contended that a court-monitored probe was needed in the matter as the investigating agencies in the State as well as central agencies have seemingly turned a blind eye to it all.The petitioners further alleged that the government jumped the gun and used outdated technology, resulting in a waste of public money..The Court, however, noted that the petitioners had failed to provide enough material to substantiate their allegations. With regard to the concern regarding data privacy and the security of collected information, the Court observed the firms to which the work was contracted had no access to the data. "All information is securely stored on a server located in the State control room, which is under the exclusive control of the MV Department. When a violation is detected, the camera automatically captures an image, and only the images of actual violations are transmitted to the central control room as encrypted data. These encrypted images are then sent to the IT Mission application, which is owned by the Ministry of Road Traffic and maintained by the National Informatics Centres. Designated officers in each district use this application to verify the violations. Once approved, the details of the vehicle owner are retrieved from the Vahan database, and e-challans are generated,"the Court explained. The Court ultimately dismissed the petition, concluding that there was no breach of data privacy or corruption in the tender process..The petitioners were represented by Senior Advocate George Poonthottam and advocates Nisha George, J Vishnu, Arun Chandran, AL Navaneeth Krishnan and Sidharth R Wariyar.Advocate General K Gopalakrishna Kurup and Senior Advocates Shyam Padman and P Sreekumar appeared for the respondents. .[Read Judgment]