The Delhi High Court has rejected a petition filed in public interest aiming to eliminate the Interactive Voice Response (IVR) and other computer-generated voice features from the Emergency Helpline No. 112. Acting Chief Justice Manmohan and Justice Manmeet Pritam Singh Arora, constituting a division bench, ruled that despite its imperfections, the current IVR system is deemed optimal for the present circumstances.

“Maybe after the current system has stabilized, the need for IVR may not remain,” the court said.

Furthermore, the bench noted that data provided by the Delhi Police revealed a concerning frequency of unintentional or prank calls received at the Emergency Helpline No. 112. With the Delhi Police reporting receiving 8.5 lakh calls compared to the intended 18,000 genuine calls, the bench concurred with the police's argument that such a disproportionate volume could overwhelm the system, potentially resulting in the neglect of genuine callers.

Ganga Saran filed the PIL, arguing that the IVR system on Emergency Helpline No. 112 is redundant and dissuades the public from directly accessing the helpline. In response, the Delhi Police countered, stating that the IVR process takes only 05 seconds for serious callers who promptly press '8'.

“We are of the opinion that the said time taken cannot be said to be unreasonable. Further, if a caller uses a landline or a mobile handset to place a call on Emergency Helpline No. 112, pressing '8' immediately thereafter cannot pose any hindrance to the caller,” the court observed.

It added: “We accordingly, find no grounds for issuing the directions sought in the present petition and accordingly, the present petition along with applications are dismissed.”

Counsel for Petitioner: Ms. Deepti Gupta, Advocate

Counsel for Respondent: Mr. Santosh Kumar Tripathi, Standing Counsel (Civil) with Mr. Rishabh Srivastava and Mr. Kartik Sharma, Advocates

Title: GANGA SARAN v. THE COMISSIONER OF POLICE