How Long Should You Keep CCTV Footage in India? Legal Requirements by Site Type

How long you keep CCTV footage matters more than most site owners realise — until the one incident where you discover the relevant day was overwritten. In India there is no single national CCTV retention law, but a patchwork of sector-specific regulations, state police orders, and institutional guidelines that each specify a minimum retention period. This guide covers the most common site types in Mumbai and across India, what they require, and how to plan storage for those requirements using our free CCTV storage calculator.

Why retention days are a storage planning decision

CCTV storage scales linearly with retention. If 30 days of footage from your 16-camera site needs 15 TB of HDD space, then 60 days needs 30 TB and 90 days needs 45 TB. This isn't just a numbers exercise — it determines how many hard drive bays your NVR needs, whether you can fit storage within a single unit or need a RAID/NAS expansion, and how frequently drives need to be replaced under overwrite cycles. Specifying the wrong retention period at the time of installation is one of the most common reasons clients call us back for an upgrade within the first year. Size it right from the start using the retention quick chips in the calculator (7 / 15 / 30 / 60 / 90 days) to compare storage costs side by side.

Standard commercial and retail: 30 days

For most commercial premises in Mumbai — offices, retail stores, warehouses, malls — 30 days is the de facto standard, derived from state police advisories and the practical reality that most theft, damage, and workplace incidents are reported within a week and investigated within a month. Some shopping mall associations and private housing societies in Mumbai set their own minimum at 30 days by internal rule. 30 days is also the minimum commonly expected by police when a case FIR references CCTV evidence.

Banks and financial institutions: 90 days (RBI guidance)

The Reserve Bank of India has issued circulars requiring banks to maintain CCTV footage for a minimum of 90 days at all banking halls, ATMs, currency chests, and cash-handling areas. The RBI also specifies that footage must be recorded continuously (not motion-only), with sufficient resolution to identify faces at entry and counter positions. We have directly installed CCTV infrastructure for RBI data center networking projects, and this 90-day continuous requirement significantly changes the NVR storage spec compared to a standard commercial site. A 16-channel 4MP H.265 setup recording continuously for 90 days needs approximately 45–55 TB of raw storage before overhead.

Jewellery stores and high-value retail: 60–90 days

The Jewellers Vigilance Committee of India and the All India Gem and Jewellery Domestic Council have recommended 60–90 day retention for jewellery showrooms, gold loan companies, and high-value retail. The reason is that jewellery theft and fraud cases often surface weeks after the incident — a customer returns to dispute a purchase, or an internal pilferage is only discovered at a stock audit. Insurance companies for jewellery businesses in Mumbai also increasingly ask for confirmation of retention periods as a condition of coverage.

Hospitals and healthcare: 30–90 days

There is no single national mandate for hospitals, but Maharashtra state health regulations and the National Accreditation Board for Hospitals (NABH) standards both reference CCTV as part of security and patient safety protocols. In practice, most large Mumbai hospitals maintain 30–60 days for general areas and up to 90 days for ICU, OT, pharmacy, and medicine storage areas. We installed surveillance systems for MMRDA, MMRC, and MCGM hospital facilities during the Covid-19 period — storage requirements for those sites were defined at 60 days minimum across all zones.

Government, PSU, and infrastructure sites: 90–180+ days

Government and public sector sites — including metro rail stations, toll plazas, courts, and government offices — typically specify retention in tender documents. The Mumbai Metro Aqua Line 3 project, where we supplied and installed security and surveillance systems, specified 180-day retention for certain camera positions. Railway and airport security frameworks in India reference similar extended retention windows. For any government or PSU tender, the retention requirement will be explicitly stated in the security specification section and should be read before sizing NVR storage — defaulting to 30 days on a 180-day-requirement tender means the storage spec needs to be increased by 6×.

Housing societies in Maharashtra: 30 days (MahaRERA reference)

MahaRERA guidelines for registered housing projects in Maharashtra reference CCTV as part of the mandatory security infrastructure for common areas (lobbies, parking, lifts, entrance gates). While MahaRERA itself does not specify a retention period, most society AOAs and the Maharashtra Housing Department's model bylaws reference 30 days as the minimum for footage to be available for committee or police review on request.

What this means for NVR storage planning

• Standard commercial / retail: size for 30 days — 2× 4TB drives are often sufficient for 8 cameras at 2MP H.265
• Bank / financial institution: size for 90 days continuous — budget for 3–5× the storage of a comparable retail site
• Hospital / large commercial: 60 days is a safe minimum — confirm with your compliance team before installation
• Government / PSU / infrastructure: read the tender spec — 90–180 days are common, motion recording may not be permissible
• Housing society: 30 days minimum — check your society's AOA bye-laws, some specify longer

To calculate exactly how much HDD storage your site needs at any retention period, enter your camera count, resolution, and codec into our CCTV HDD Storage Calculator and use the quick chips to toggle between 30, 60, and 90 days — it shows the drive count and recommended HDD size for each scenario instantly.

For site-specific storage planning or compliance guidance for a tender, contact our team directly.