NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court has taken suo motu cognisance of recent rape cases reported in Delhi and surrounding areas, observing that the incidents bear “painful similarities” with the 2012 Nirbhaya case. A bench led by Justice JB Pardiwala said the recent cases clearly highlighted failures by law enforcement agencies and public administrative authorities to ensure basic public safety.
“The reports of rape cases in Delhi-NCR starkly underline a systematic failure on the part of the law enforcement and the public administrative authorities to guarantee basic public safety,” the bench said. Justice Pardiwala said public spaces such as parks and buses cannot be allowed to become high-risk zones because of inadequate lighting, poor surveillance and a lack of other administrative facilities.
The Supreme Court also referred to the recent case of a 17-year-old girl who had left home to visit Kalkaji Mandir in south Delhi on her birthday. She was allegedly gangraped by men who posed as policemen in a nearby park. Justice Pardiwala said merely expressing solidarity was not enough and stressed the need to fix accountability.
“One cannot help but draw painful parallels to the Nirbhaya incident of 2012,” he observed. The 2012 Nirbhaya case involved the gang rape of a 23-year-old woman on a moving bus in Delhi, followed by her death. The incident triggered massive protests across the country.
The protests led to amendments in laws concerning sexual offences, including an expanded definition of sexual offences and increased punishment for crimes against women. Of the six accused in the Nirbhaya case, one was a juvenile. One accused died in jail, while the remaining four were hanged at Delhi’s Tihar Jail.
The Supreme Court’s reference also included an August case involving a teenager travelling from Mainpuri in Uttar Pradesh to Noida. She was allegedly gangraped on a moving bus. The sleeper bus had curtains covering the berths, which the accused allegedly took advantage of. The bus also did not have a functional CCTV system, despite such systems being required by law following the 2012 Nirbhaya case.
