The Supreme Court on Monday stressed that every woman in Delhi must feel safe while using public spaces and public transport, telling the Union government and Delhi Police to take effective measures to address safety concerns in the national capital.
Aastha Kunj case triggers safety audit
The Supreme Court had on September 28 taken suo motu cognisance of the incidents, including the alleged gang rape of a 17-year-old girl at Aastha Kunj Park near Kalkaji, the alleged gang rape of a minor in Swaroop Nagar and the alleged sexual assault of a 16-year-old girl inside a bus travelling from Greater Noida to Delhi. It also linked the issue of public safety to the fundamental right to live with dignity and without violence under Article 21 of the Constitution. The court’s intervention comes amid a series of cases involving women and minors in the National Capital Region. The court’s latest observation comes as the debate over women’s safety has increasingly focused not only on policing but also on whether women can freely access and use public spaces after dark.
“We must ensure every woman in NCT Delhi feels safe, whether walking at 10 PM or travelling by metro or road,” a bench led by Justice JB Pardiwala said while hearing a suo motu case concerning recent rape and sexual assault incidents in Delhi-NCR. The bench had said public spaces such as parks, roads and buses could not be allowed to become “zones of high risk” and questioned whether lessons had been learnt from the 2012 Nirbhaya case. The Supreme Court has also criticised what it described as a “systemic failure” by the Delhi government and police to guarantee basic public safety, and called for an audit of public spaces in the capital.
