Kerala High Court directs State to halt payment for Safe Kerala AI traffic camera project until further orders

The Kerala High Court on Tuesday directed the State government to halt payment of instalments for the Safe Kerala Project, which involved the installation of Artificial Intelligence cameras (AI cameras) across the State with a view to reduce road accidents..A division bench of Chief Justice SV Bhatti and Justice Basant Balaji directed the State not to make any further payments until further orders are passed by the Court.The direction came a in public interest litigation (PIL) petition moved by Congress member and leader of the opposition in the Kerala assembly, VD Satheesan, along with fellow Congress leader and Member of Legislative Assembly Ramesh Chennithala, seeking a court-monitored enquiry into the Safe Kerala Project."We call upon the respondents to not make any payment, until further orders from this court or after intimation to this court, of any of the annuities through which the present project is implemented," the order dictated by the bench said. The Court also issued notice to the respondents, including the State government..During the course of the hearing, Senior Advocate George Poonthottam, appearing for the petitioners, told the Court that the petitioners are not opposed to the project as a whole but only to the purported corruption involved in the decision making process of the State government. "During and in the course of hearing we have appreciated the arguments of the learned counsel Mr George poonthottam and while ordering notice we prefer to place on record that the present PIL petitioners, who have been holding positions of trust and public office, desire transparency, accountability and complete probity in the discharge of public trust reposted by the people," the bench recorded in its order. Interestingly, the bench then decided to direct the petitioner-politicians to file an additional affidavit detailing their policy of zero tolerance to corruption that they practice in discharging their own duties."...the petitioners are given the liberty to file affidavits on the standard they adhere to their heart and practice in public life and demand the same standard from respondents in the decision-making process," the bench 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 notice to the violators.The PIL petition alleged that the award of tenders for the installation of AI cameras resulted in "nepotism, favouritism and corruption including violation of privacy, a protected right as explained by the apex court in its judgment in Puttuswamy"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.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.Even 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. .During today's hearing, Senior Advocate Poonthottam argued on the illegality of changing the mode of developing the project from BOOT (build, own, operate, transfer) to an annuity model which involves payment of quarterly installments to KELTRON.The Court said that it would consider the PIL from this angle and posted it for hearing after three weeks."After perusing the exhibits we are convinced that the matter needs to be examined from the perspective of change in dynamics of the implementation of the projectwhether it is objective, bonafide or vitiated by any of the collateral reasons stated in the petition, whether the change of mode from BOOT to annuity the exchequer is directly or indirectly made to part with more than what is envisaged in the beginning And also that whether the issuance of ex P27 (Govt order approving Safe Kerala Project) without actually referring to if the matters to be decided were taken up consideration in the cabinet", the order stated..The petitioners were represented by Senior Advocate George Poonthottam and advocates Nisha George, J Vishnu, Arun Chandran, AL Navaneeth Krishnan and Sidharth R Wariyar..[Read live coverage of hearing].[Read Order]