Delhi Police have told India’s Supreme Court that the facial recognition system deployed during the Jantar Mantar student protests captured only people with prior records for serious offences, identifying 2,873 matches over seven days in July.
The affidavit, sworn by Deputy Commissioner of Police for the New Delhi District Sachin Sharma, states that the software does not automatically capture, create or maintain profiles of peaceful protesters and is not deployed for indiscriminate surveillance. It flags only people with prior criminal antecedents for field verification, and no action is taken on a facial recognition match alone. The force says the system excludes petty matters such as traffic challans.
The matches came between July 20 and 26. Of the 2,873 people flagged, 92 had involvement in more than 10 cases and 47 were history-sheeters, with offences ranging from murder and rape to charges under the POCSO and NDPS Acts. Any investigation arising from the protests will be confined to that group and will not extend to other protesters, the police say.
A bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant with Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V Mohana heard the matter on Tuesday. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta reiterated that the technology captures only faces recorded in the crime database. Senior Advocates N Hariharan and Menaka Guruswamy disputed that account of how the system works, with Guruswamy alleging the police engaged a private company to process the data collected through the software.
The court has issued notice on a further petition questioning the deployment of surveillance tools at protest sites. When the bench proposed referring the protest-related issues to a high-powered committee headed by a former judge, counsel for the petitioners opposed sending the facial recognition question there, arguing that constitutional issues belong before the court. The Chief Justice assured that constitutional questions would be determined by the court alone.
The affidavit answers the challenge the court agreed to hear last week, brought after a Rajya Sabha MP petitioned to halt police facial recognition at protests. The matter is listed as Shailendra Mani Tripathi v Union of India, writ petition 280 of 2026, with connected cases.
Sources: LiveLaw, Bar and Bench
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By the ID Tech Editorial Team
