If CCTV footage may help establish what happened, contact the agency that controls the camera immediately and ask it to preserve the recording. Give the exact location, date and narrowest practical time window, and include a police complaint, FIR or other reference if you have one. A preservation request is urgent but does not guarantee that you will receive a copy. For a formal information request, use the RTI route for the authority that holds the footage; disclosure may be limited by privacy, security, investigation needs and applicable access rules.
First, identify who controls the camera
The authority responsible for a location is not necessarily the authority that operates its cameras. A camera on a road, in a government building, on a bus or metro, or at a police facility may be controlled by different agencies. Ask the local police station or the likely department who holds the recording if you are unsure.
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For Delhi Police, use the central-government RTI route. The Government of India’s RTI Online portal accepts applications for central public authorities and says applications for state-government authorities, including the Government of NCT of Delhi, will be returned without refund. Delhi’s separate RTI portal is for NCT Delhi departments and public authorities, not central-government bodies. For a camera controlled by a Delhi government department, municipal body or other state/local authority, use that authority’s designated route.
The Delhi Police RTI page links its RTI Manual. Check the current manual or the central portal’s public-authority listing for the relevant information officer before filing. PIO assignments can depend on the subject and office; do not assume a contact listed for administrative matters handles every footage request.
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Act quickly: request preservation separately
Camera systems may overwrite recordings according to their own retention settings. Contact the custodian promptly and ask it to preserve the specific footage while a police inquiry or formal request is pending. If an offence or immediate safety issue is involved, report it through the appropriate police process as well.
- Identify the camera and custodian. Record the apparent operator—such as Delhi Police, PWD, a municipal body, a transport authority or a public building—and ask who controls the specific camera if uncertain.
- Send a focused preservation request. State that the footage may be overwritten. Provide the date, location and time range, and ask the custodian to preserve it pending inquiry or your formal request. Confirm how the agency accepts such requests; the reviewed official sources do not establish one universal Delhi Police preservation form.
- File an RTI request if you need a formal records response. Ask for existing records, rather than broad explanations or opinions. Delhi’s Administrative Reforms guidance recommends keeping an RTI request brief and specific: RTI FAQ.
- Keep evidence of each step. Save your request, filing receipt, registration number, acknowledgments and responses. Check the application’s status, especially if it is transferred or filed through the wrong portal; do not assume a portal filing preserved the footage.
What to put in the RTI request
Make the description precise enough to help staff locate the recording. Include:
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- The exact date and a narrow start and end time; specify the time zone if there could be ambiguity.
- The precise place, including road, entrance, direction of travel, floor, nearby landmark or camera identifier, if known.
- A short factual description of the incident and a complaint, FIR or other reference number, if applicable.
- The record sought: the existing recording, if disclosable. You can also ask whether supervised inspection or a redacted copy is available.
- If the authority cannot provide the footage, a record stating whether it exists and the applicable retention policy, or identification of the office or agency that holds it.
These are practical drafting suggestions, not a prescribed CCTV application form. Delhi’s public-space CCTV rules require camera owners to state a predetermined retention policy to the appropriate authority; they do not set one universal retention period for all systems. See the Delhi Police RTI page for its linked manual and relevant rules.
An RTI request does not guarantee a video copy
Delhi’s published public-space CCTV rules restrict access to unauthorized persons. They provide for information to be made available on demand to government agencies mandated by law to obtain it for prevention, detection, investigation, prosecution and punishment of offences, and require appropriate purpose, secure storage and restricted access. An individual’s request for a copy is therefore not an automatic entitlement to an unredacted recording.
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The authority may consider privacy, security, investigative requirements and other applicable RTI exemptions. Ask for a written, reasoned decision if access is refused. Depending on the circumstances, you can ask whether a redacted copy or supervised inspection is possible and use the appeal process to challenge a denial or delay. A request for police review or preservation is distinct from a request for public disclosure.
Retention and RTI deadlines are different clocks
There is no established force-wide Delhi Police retention period in the cited material. In a 2017 Central Information Commission decision about CCTV at Delhi Police’s SPUWAC counselling premises, the respondent stated that footage at that site was retained for 15 days. The Commission directed an affidavit about that period and whether the particular footage existed. That historical, site-specific statement is not a general rule for Delhi Police cameras. The applicable system’s declared retention policy matters, and footage may be gone before an RTI response arrives.
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Delhi’s Administrative Reforms FAQ says the Government will endeavor to provide information within 15 days, subject to a maximum of 30 days. That guidance describes the Delhi process; Delhi Police requests use the central RTI route, so check the current central-portal instructions and Delhi Police manual for the request you file. Do not treat an RTI response deadline as a guarantee that a recording will be retained until then.
If there is no reply or access is refused
Keep the denial or note the date the applicable response period expires, then follow the appeal route for the authority handling your request. For an application made through the central RTI portal, its FAQ explains first appeals and states there is no fee for a first appeal: RTI Online. The portal cautions that if an application was physically transferred to an authority not aligned with it, an appeal may need to be filed physically; follow the current instructions for your specific filing.
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Use the appellate authority identified for the public authority and matter in the response or current Delhi Police RTI Manual. Delhi’s NCT Delhi appeal guidance does not establish the appeal route for Delhi Police, which is a central public authority. An appeal cannot restore footage already deleted under the camera system’s retention policy.
For cameras run by another public authority
Once you have identified the operator, file with that authority’s designated information officer. Use the central portal for a central public authority; use the relevant state, municipal or other local channel for a state/local authority. The central and NCT Delhi portals explicitly exclude each other’s jurisdictions, so choosing the portal based only on the camera’s physical location can send the request to the wrong place.
A 14 April 2026 Indian Express report described a proposed PWD-to-Delhi Police arrangement for Delhi government-operated public-space cameras, under which residents who previously had feed passwords would instead visit local police stations for assistance. The report described a proposal and quoted unnamed officials; it does not establish that the change was completed or that a police station must give out footage. Confirm the present procedure with the camera’s custodian.
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