The right to safety in public spaces is an intrinsic facet of the right to life and personal liberty under Article 21, requiring the State to ensure operational, accountable security frameworks rather than mere paper-based schemes.

ORDER :

J.B. Pardiwala & K. Vinod Chandran, JJ.

1. A series of deeply disturbing news reports over the past few weeks, detailing egregious crimes against minor girls and women across the National Capital Region (NCR) of Delhi, have raised serious concerns regarding the safety and security of public spaces in and around the city.

2. The harrowing account given by the 17-year-old victim of the alleged gang rape at Aastha Kunj Park in Delhi, is a stark reminder of the persistent vulnerabilities faced by women and children in spaces that ought to be safe and accessible to all. The safety concerns emerging from this incident, however, cannot be viewed in isolation. This incident has also brought to light preexisting complaints of recurrent sexual harassment faced by students of Lady Shri Ram College for Women, situated in the immediate vicinity of Aastha Kunj Park. Regrettably, these prior grievances failed to serve as a wake-up call for the police or the local administration to rectify institutional security lapses through enhanced patrolling and vigilance before yet another victim fell prey to unscrupulous perpetrators.

3. We are equally distressed by the news reports regarding the alleged gang rape and murder of a teenage girl in the Swaroop Nagar area of Delhi, where the police reportedly recovered the victim’s decomposed body from a field, in a partially scavenged state.

4. Furthermore, we take serious note of the recently reported incident involving the alleged sexual assault of a minor girl inside a moving sleeper bus, which law enforcement agencies failed to intercept while it traversed a distance of over 47 Km from Greater Noida to Delhi. One cannot help but draw painful parallels to the 2012 Nirbhaya case, calling into question whether systemic law enforcement mechanisms have made any meaningful progress in the decade since then.

5. These incidents, considered alongside other recent reports of sexual offences across Delhi-NCR, starkly underline a systemic failure on the part of law enforcement and civil 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 guarantee of life and personal liberty enshrined under Article 21 of the Constitution. Public spaces, including parks, roads, buses, metro stations, subways, foot bridges, etc. cannot be permitted to become zones of high risk due to grossly inadequate illumination, poor surveillance, lax patrolling, or other preventable administrative deficiencies.

6. The statements made by public authorities and elected representatives expressing concern over these incidents are understandable. However, expressions of concern, devoid of accountability, fall short of answering the larger institutional question. Expressing solidarity is not the solution to this social evil. What is required is a measurable response, with responsibility and accountability fixed upon the authorities entrusted with prevention of crime, maintenance of public order and protection of vulnerable persons.

7. Furthermore, we must emphasize that public spaces suffering from inadequate illumination, deficient surveillance, or a lack of visible police patrolling and prompt interventional response mechanisms inevitably expose every citizen to heightened security risks. Where basic measures of public safety remain compromised, no individual, irrespective of age, gender, or sexual identity, can navigate public spaces with a sense of security. The primary obligation of the State and its instrumentalities is to maintain public spaces that are safe, accessible, and secure for all, while remaining particularly attentive to the heightened risks faced by children, women and other sexual minorities.

8. We remain mindful that specific allegations of crime must be investigated strictly in accordance with law and that the guilt or innocence of individual accused persons can only be determined through due process and fair trial.