India
oi-Prakash KL
The Supreme Court on Monday said that the authorities must ensure every woman in NCT Delhi feels safe and urged them to take measures that ensures that they are safer even when they are walking at 10 PM or travelling by metro or road, Live Law reported.
A bench led by Justice Pardiwala was hearing the suo motu case on recent rape incidents in Delhi NCR.
The Supreme Court urged authorities in NCT Delhi to ensure women feel safe, specifically when walking at 10 PM or traveling by metro/road, during a hearing concerning recent rape incidents.
On September 28, the court took cognisance on its own of three incidents: the alleged gang rape of a 17-year-old 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 in a bus travelling from Greater Noida to Delhi, Hindustan Times reported.
Parks, roads and buses, the bench said, should not allowed to become the “zones of high risk” and asked whether the country had learnt anything from the 2012 Nirbhaya case, and tied public safety to Article 21, the right to live with dignity and free from violence.
The September 21 Aastha Kunj incident sparked protests and fresh scrutiny of park security. A DDA audit found CCTV coverage in just 16 of its 736 parks. It marked 190 parks high-risk, said 520 needed better lighting, and 323 needed more cameras.
The audit also pointed to weak boundary security, gates, toilets and abandoned structures. At Aastha Kunj alone, over 30 spots have been identified for camera installation, with officials noting the park’s secluded stretches and wooded patches make surveillance hard.
The court has called out what it termed a “systemic failure” by the Delhi government and police on basic public safety, and sought an audit of the capital’s public spaces. The case also reflects a shift in the debate – from policing alone to whether women can freely use public spaces after dark.
