M A I N   N E W S

Women’s safety measures: SC puts Centre, states on notice
R Sedhuraman
Legal Correspondent

New Delhi, January 2
The Supreme Court today sought the response of the Centre and all the states within four weeks to a PIL that has cited about 50 recent incidents of gruesome atrocities against women across the country to seek a better legal system and recruitment of more women in the police as part of a series of steps to deal with gender-based crimes.

A three-member Bench headed by Justice P Sathasivam issued notice to all the states, though the PIL has named only Haryana and four other states - Delhi, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan - as respondents.

“We want to deal with it in a comprehensive manner” in view of the seriousness of the issue, the Bench clarified. Justices Ranjan Gogoi and V Gopalagowda are the other judges on the Bench.

The SC also sought the assistance of Attorney General GE Vahanvati in the case, besides asking other respondents, Union Ministry of Women and Child Development and National Commission for Women, to give their views.

Pleading for putting in place a comprehensive security mechanism for women, the PIL wanted the setting up of all women police stations in all the states to encourage women to report crimes against them. “It has been well-settled by a series of decisions of this Hon’ble Court that the word ‘life’ in Article 21 of the Constitution means a life of dignity and not just an animal life,” the petition contended.

All the police stations should have “Voluntary Action Bureaus and Family Counselling Centres,” besides community watch groups. The Centre should implement in letter and spirit the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and enforce the SAARC (South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation) Convention on Trafficking of Women and Children.

Filed by a Noida resident Mukul Kumar in August 2012 prior to the barbaric gang rape and murder of a medical student in Delhi last month, the petition also wants provision of mobile phones to all women staying alone to help them contact the police. There should be increased patrolling in all areas particularly after sunset.

Among the appalling crimes cited in the petition are the sexual exploitation of the inmates of two shelter homes in Haryana, Suparna ka Angan in Gurgaon and Apna Ghar in Rohtak, overcrowding and a rape incident in the Karnal Nari Niketan and about 50 children reported missing in Delhi in the first week of July 2012 alone.

The PIL also pointed out the rising incidents of rape in mega cities, falling conviction rate in rape cases, molestation of a girl in front of a TV camera in a crowded place in Guwahati and influential male members driving women to commit suicide as highlighted by Geetika Sharma and Anuradha Bali alias Fiza. It also cited murder of a 22-year-old lawyer by a watchman in Mumbai.

Meanwhile, another three-member Bench headed by Chief Justice Altamas Kabir today agreed to hear another PIL filed in the wake of the Delhi rape case that has stirred the nation’s conscience.