Supreme Court steps in on Delhi-NCR sexual assault cases, flags policing gaps

The Supreme Court on Monday took suo motu cognisance of a series of sexual assault incidents involving minors and women in the Delhi-National Capital Region, and sought a response from the Delhi Police.

A Bench of Justices J.B. Pardiwala and K. Vinod Chandran flagged what it described as preventable administrative and policing failures that allow public spaces to turn into high-risk zones. Roads, buses, Metro stations, footbridges and subways, the Bench said, cannot be permitted to become unsafe because of inadequate lighting, weak surveillance and lax patrolling.

The court took note of three recent cases: the rape of a 17-year-old at Astha Kunj park near Lady Shri Ram College, the gang-rape of a minor at Swaroop Nagar, and the sexual assault of another minor inside a bus travelling from Greater Noida to Delhi.

Referring to the gang-rape of a 17-year-old in a moving bus that covered nearly 47 km from Greater Noida to Kashmere Gate without being stopped at a single police picket, the Bench said it was compelled to draw painful parallels with the 2012 Nirbhaya case. The incident, it observed, raised questions about whether law enforcement systems had made any meaningful progress in the years since.

The Bench said the right to live with dignity, free from the fear of violence, is an intrinsic part of the fundamental guarantee of life and personal liberty under Article 21 of the Constitution. It added that expressions of solidarity by public authorities and elected representatives, without accountability, do not address the larger institutional problem.

What is needed, the court said, is a measurable response with responsibility fixed on the authorities tasked with preventing crime, maintaining public order and protecting vulnerable persons.

The court also questioned the police response in the Astha Kunj case, noting reports that students of Lady Shri Ram College had earlier complained of sexual harassment in the area and that those complaints had not led to improved surveillance or rectification of security lapses.