CJP Protest Under AI Watch: Delhi Police's Facial Recognition Vans Spark Privacy Concerns

Surveillance vans equipped with facial recognition technology have been stationed outside Kerala House near Jantar Mantar, where the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) has been protesting for over 26 days demanding Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan's resignation over alleged NEET-UG irregularities, according to a report by The Indian Express.

The Delhi Police has parked two specialised vehicles at the site, a larger Mobile Command and Control Vehicle where personnel monitor live CCTV feeds, and a smaller van called "Ikshana," where officers watch footage run through AI-aided facial recognition software that flags matches against a police database using green boxes around detected faces.

The Ikshana van was first introduced by Delhi Police ahead of the 2023 G20 Summit, described in a police social media post as a "live CCTV surveillance vehicle" fitted with eight fixed cameras providing 360-degree coverage.

A senior Delhi Police officer confirmed the force runs facial recognition on protest footage against its criminal database to identify any wanted individuals present, according to the report.

Protesters Say They're Covering Their Faces

Students and demonstrators at the site said that the surveillance has pushed them to hide their faces while holding placards, out of fear that being profiled in a police database could jeopardise future government job applications.

A UPSC aspirant from Rajasthan described how she has to conceal her face despite the effort she put into her protest posters, while another student expressed concern that footage of her sloganeering could reach her parents, who are unaware of her being at the protest.

A second police officer told the publication that there are no fixed data retention guidelines for the footage, since any probe into unrest at the site could arise months later, making it difficult to say how long recordings stay in police systems. Delhi Police did not respond to the paper's queries on the matter, the report noted.

Court Challenge Underway

On July 15, former JNU Students' Union president Aishe Ghosh moved the Delhi High Court against what her petition calls "continuous, indiscriminate and intrusive surveillance" at the protest site, including a permanent surveillance tower and constant videographer deployment, which she argued violates protesters' fundamental rights to privacy, dignity, free speech, and peaceful assembly.

Consequently, on Friday, the court agreed to hear the plea, which seeks suspension of mass photography and videography at Jantar Mantar until there is a "proximate, real, and imminent threat to public order."

At a July 20 hearing, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta told the court on the government's behalf that the recording was solely for maintaining law and order and public safety, and "not for surveillance or snooping." Chief Justice D K Upadhyaya has since preponed the matter, and the High Court is expected to hear it again in the coming days, the Indian Express report said.

Regulatory Gap

While facial recognition use on citizens technically falls under the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023, the law carries broad exemptions for government and security agencies, including police forces, a gap civil liberties groups have flagged amid the wider expansion of facial recognition, drone monitoring, and automated number-plate recognition systems across Indian policing, said the report.

The CJP protest has now reached 35 days, with Sonam Wangchuk ending his indefinite hunger strike today. The CJP leader continues to raise the demand for the Union Education Minister's resignation and maintains that the protest will end with nothing less than that.

The stir has drawn national attention not just for its scale but for the intensity of policing around it, with AI-enabled surveillance vans now a fixture at the site.