HC no to include ministers in women’s safety panel

NEW DELHI: The Delhi high court on Wednesday declined to entertain Delhi Commission for Women chairperson Swati Maliwal’s plea seeking a direction to the lieutenant governor to include AAP ministers in the reconstituted Special Task Force for women safety.

A bench of Justice BD Ahmed and Justice Ashtosh Kumar, however, asked LG Anil Baijal to consider including the Delhi State Legal Service Authority (DSLSA) in the 12-member task force that was reconstituted on January 20.

The task force, established in 2013 following the December 16, 2012 gangrape and murder of a 23-year-old woman in a moving bus, was disbanded last year.

The court was of the opinion that the DSLSA being a “significant” part of the rape survivors’ victim compensation scheme should be part of the task force. The DSLSA is the sanctioning authority that decides the quantum of compensation to be awarded to a victim.

On Maliwal’s plea, the court directed the police to identify areas where it is necessary to set up more street lights based on the crime mapping exercise it had earlier conducted.

“Studies across the world have suggested that dark public areas, where there is insufficient street light, are crime prone,” the bench remarked as it directed all civic agencies to put a logo and telephone complaint number on each street light pole under their responsibility.

Advocate Meera Bhatia, who is assisting the court as amicus curiae in the case, said the issue of installation of CCTV cameras in the capital has been put in the backburner as both the city government and police had not done anything on it. Bhatia said the CCTV cameras had not even been installed most of the police stations here.

Delhi police said the proposal to install 18,000 CCTV cameras were rejected by the Centre citing technical objection of it being “gender neutral”.

The court directed the Centre, police and the city government to clarify the latest stand on installation of CCTVs in all police stations and crime-prone areas. The Delhi Police, one of the largest metropolitan police forces in the world with a current strength of 76,000, requires an additional 54,482 posts to improve policing in the capital.

But only 14,753 new posts have been cleared by the home ministry and that too is pending approval by the “competent authority”. The police have been facing criticism for rising crime, particularly against women.

As per Delhi Police’s official website, a total of 1,981 rape cases were registered as on November last year, a decrease from 2,017 rape cases for the same period in 2015 .

The Delhi HC, hearing a public interest litigation on women safety and recruitment of additional cops in Delhi after the December 16, 2012 gang rape, on Wednesday asked the Centre and police to submit a status report on when the new appointments will be made and what happened to the remaining proposals.

The court is looking to separate crime investigation and law and order duty of the police.