Supreme Court Takes Suo Motu Cognisance of Recent Rape Cases in National Capital

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday took suo motu cognisance of a series of recent rape cases in Delhi-NCR, saying the cases drew painful parallels with the 2012 Nirbhaya gang rape and exposed a systematic failure of law enforcement and public administration to guarantee basic safety.

A bench of Justices JB Pardiwala and K Vinod Chandran directed the registration of a suo motu case, observing that expressions of solidarity were not enough and that accountability had to be fixed.

The court referred to the alleged gang rape of a 16-year-old girl who boarded a sleeper bus in Greater Noida on August 4. She was allegedly assaulted by the bus's conductor and driver and abandoned near Kashmere Gate in Old Delhi, with the vehicle reportedly covering about 47 kilometres without police interception. The bench also cited the gang rape and murder of a teenage girl in Delhi where a 17-year-old girl was allegedly gang-raped by three men at Aastha Kunj Park near Kalkaji Mandir in southeast Delhi, with the accused allegedly posing as police personnel before taking her to a secluded part of the park.

The court said public spaces such as parks and buses cannot be allowed to become high-risk zones because of poor lighting, weak surveillance and other administrative failings.