Supreme Court Issues Directives for Women's Safety in Delhi-NCR

The Supreme Court has issued a series of binding directions to revamp preventive policing, public transport security, and monitoring across the Delhi-National Capital Region (NCR) to ensure the safety of women [In Re: Recent Rape Incidents in Delhi NCR].The directions form part of the ongoing suo motu proceedings initiated by the Court after a spate of rape cases were reported recently from Delhi-NCR, including a case where a teenager was raped at a public park.In its order, the Bench of Justices JB Pardiwala and K Vinod Chandran emphasised that public safety requires continuous ground visibility rather than post-incident response. The Court observed that unmonitored dark stretches, broken streetlights, and illegal eateries directly facilitate crimes against women."Public safety... cannot be viewed solely through the prism of a response to a crime after it has occurred. The manner in which public spaces are maintained, the visibility of police patrolling and surveillance, and the promptness with which reported deficiencies are addressed are equally relevant to crime prevention," the Court noted in its October 5 order. Justice JB Pardiwala and Justice Vinod ChandranTo bridge the gap between "paperwork and ground reality," the Supreme Court issued the following key directives:1. Mandatory driver verification for buses and cabs: Strict verification of drivers and assistants across government/ private buses, app-based aggregators (Ola, Uber, Rapido), and priv