'Women Must Feel Safe, Even At 10 PM': SC Tells Centre, Delhi Police To Ensure Womens Safety

The Supreme Court on Monday told the Union government and Delhi Police to take effective steps so women feel secure in Delhi’s public places and on public transport, as it pressed authorities to respond to a series of rape and sexual assault cases in Delhi-NCR. A bench led by Justice JB Pardiwala said safety must also extend to women using the road, the metro or walking after dark.

“We must ensure every woman in NCT Delhi feels safe, whether walking at 10 PM or travelling by metro or road,” the bench led by Pardiwala said while hearing a suo motu case on recent rape and sexual assault incidents in the region.

The court asked the Centre and Delhi Police to move quickly on the safety concerns in the national capital. It intervened amid a spate of cases involving women and minors that revived questions over public safety in Delhi and nearby areas.

Recent Incidents Prompting

On September 28, the court took up the matter on its own after a cluster of 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.

Parks, roads and buses cannot become "zones of high risk," the bench said. It also asked whether the 2012 Nirbhaya case had taught any lessons and tied women’s safety to Article 21 of the Constitution, which protects the right to live with dignity and without violence.

Park Audit Findings

The Aastha Kunj case sharpened attention on park security. The allegation involving the 17-year-old there on September 21 triggered protests and a fresh look at security arrangements in Delhi’s parks.

A Delhi Development Authority safety audit then exposed wide gaps. It found that only 16 of the 736 DDA-managed parks had CCTV cameras, while 190 parks were classified as high-risk.

The audit also said 520 parks needed better lighting and 323 needed more CCTV cameras. It flagged problems with boundary security, gates, toilets and abandoned structures in several parks. At Aastha Kunj, officials have since identified more than 30 locations for CCTV installation, saying the park’s secluded stretches and wooded areas make surveillance difficult.

Court And Government Response

The bench called the Delhi government and police’s failure to ensure basic public safety a “systemic failure”. It also ordered an audit of public spaces across the capital.

The bench made clear that preventing crime had to come first. “There appears to be a feeling that women are not safe in city particularly in some vulnerable pockets,” the Supreme Court observed.

It then spelt out the standard authorities would be judged against. “Deficiencies, if any, should not facilitate commission of crime,” the court said. “What is important is to prevent crime, not what you do after crime is committed,” the Supreme Court observed.

Delhi chief minister Rekha Gupta has said that improving women’s safety cannot mean restricting the movement of girls and women. She has called for better lighting, CCTV cameras and more security personnel at vulnerable locations, and has urged faster handling of cases involving women and girls.