Supreme Court initiates suo motu case over rise in rape cases in Delhi

The Supreme Court on Monday took suo motu cognizance of recent rape cases in Delhi-NCR, particularly the recent incident involving a teenager in a public park.

A Bench of Justice JB Pardiwala and Justice K Vinod Chandran asked the Court's registry to register a suo motu public interest litigation on the issue and list it for hearing.

"One cannot help but draw painful parallels with the 2012 Nirbhaya case, raising the question of whether systemic law-enforcement mechanisms have made any meaningful progress in the decade since then," Justice Pardiwala said.

According to media reports, a 17-year-old girl was gang-raped on September 21 at Astha Kunj Park near Kalkaji Mandir in southeast Delhi by three men posing as police officers.

At least 13 cases of sexual assault have been reported from the national capital this month.

The Court observed that the increasing incidents across Delhi-NCR starkly underline a systemic failure on the part of law-enforcement and public administrative authorities to guarantee basic public safety.

The right to live with dignity, free from the fear of violence, is an intrinsic facet of the fundamental right to life and personal liberty guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution, the Bench said.

It added that public spaces, including parks, roads, buses, metro stations, subways and footbridges, cannot be permitted to become high-risk zones because of inadequate illumination or surveillance, lack of patrolling, or other preventable administrative deficiencies.

The Court further said that statements made by public authorities and elected representatives expressing concern over such incidents are understandable but devoid of accountability, such expressions fall short of answering the larger institutional question.

"Expressing solidarity is not a solution to this social evil," the Court said.

It called for a measurable response and fixing accountability upon the authorities entrusted with the prevention of crime, maintenance of public order and protection of vulnerable persons.