Suo Motu Case On Delhi Rapes | Supreme Court Issues Directions To Make Public Spaces Safer; Orders Safety Audit Within 4 Weeks

The Supreme Court on Monday (September 28) issued a set of immediate directions to the Delhi Police and civic authorities to secure public spaces in Delhi-NCR. The directions include a survey of vulnerable areas, a district-wise vulnerability map, patrolling at all identified parks, and a lighting and CCTV audit. All are to be completed within four weeks.

A bench of Justice JB Pardiwala and Justice K Vinod Chandran issued the directions in a suo motu case registered after a series of reported sexual offences against minor girls and women in the region.

The bench said public spaces “cannot be permitted to become zones of high risk due to grossly inadequate illumination, poor surveillance, lax patrolling, or other preventable administrative deficiencies.” It added that “expressions of concern, devoid of accountability, fall short of answering the larger institutional question.”

The Court directed that the following measures be undertaken within four weeks:

The Commissioner of Police, Delhi, must constitute dedicated teams for each police district, headed by an officer not below the rank of Deputy Superintendent of Police. They will inspect vulnerable pockets, including outskirts, isolated stretches, parks, transport hubs, markets and educational-institution zones. The audit must rely on National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) data, local intelligence, past and present complaints and previous incidents. The teams must identify locations where poor lighting, lack of surveillance, insufficient patrolling, abandoned structures or poor access control may increase the risk of crime.

A district-wise vulnerability map must be prepared and shared across adjoining police stations, so that information on recurring crime patterns and habitual offenders “is not confined to individual police-station jurisdictions.”

Patrolling and security arrangements must be deployed at all identified public parks and vulnerable areas at all times, particularly in the evening and early morning hours. A designated officer will be responsible for each location, and the authorities must prescribe a mechanism for periodic inspection.

An immediate audit must be carried out across all public parks and vulnerable zones to eliminate blind spots. Non-functional CCTV cameras and lighting must be repaired or restored expeditiously, and additional lights and cameras installed wherever inadequacy is “sensed or reported by citizens.” A similar audit must cover Metro stations, bus stops, bus terminals, railway stations and other major public-transport facilities, particularly those in or near vulnerable zones.

Authorities must use existing grievance mechanisms, including the CM Jan Sunwai Portal, as an additional source of information. Citizens may report inadequate lighting, insufficient CCTV coverage, dark or isolated stretches and unsafe access points. Each report is to be forwarded to the competent authority for verification and acted upon within a prescribed time-frame. The complainant must be able to track the status of the complaint and the action taken.

The Commissioner of Police, with civic and infrastructure agencies, must periodically analyse these complaints and incorporate recurring or corroborated ones into the vulnerability mapping. The court said citizen complaints “shall not be treated merely as isolated grievances.”

Intensified patrolling must include mobile check-posts and vehicular inspections at regular intervals. The police must strictly enforce the directions laid down in Avishek Goenka v Union of India, which noted that black, tinted or solar-control films on vehicle windows facilitate heinous crimes by concealing activities within. The police must impound non-compliant vehicles, remove illegal window coatings, and prosecute offenders without further lapses.

Further, the Registrar General of the Delhi High Court is asked to file an affidavit within four weeks on the Fast Track Special Courts (FTSCs) and POCSO Special Courts in Delhi. It must state the number functional, the cases pending before each, annual disposal rates for the preceding three years, and the average time taken for final disposal.

The High Court was also directed to assign the cases arising from these incidents to a designated Fast Track Special Court and to ensure trials are concluded expeditiously, preferably within a period of one year from the commencement of trial.

The bench also asked the authorities to file a comprehensive status report on how existing mechanisms operate on the ground. These are the National Database on Sexual Offenders, the Investigation Tracking System for Sexual Offences (ITSSO), Mission Shakti, the Emergency Response Support System (ERSS) number 112, the Women Helpline 181, the Safe City Project, Women Help Desks in police stations and One Stop Centres.

For each, the authorities must state whether it is operational, the area and population covered, the responsible officer, the volume of complaints or cases handled in the preceding three years, and the average response time.

The bench also asked the authorities to publicise the helplines and support systems, and to formulate regular awareness programmes in schools, colleges, educational institutions and residential colonies. The District Administration was directed to convene a meeting with media houses to arrange a dedicated newspaper column and broadcast time for protective devices and helpline numbers, pro bono.

It also reminded the media of its duty to practise “responsible, empathetic, and restrained journalism,” and of Section 72 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023 and Section 23 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO Act), which bar disclosure of the identity of victims.

The guidelines were passed referring to the alleged gang rape of a 17-year-old girl at Aastha Kunj Park, the alleged gang rape and murder of a teenage girl in Swaroop Nagar, and the alleged sexual assault of a minor girl in a moving sleeper bus that travelled over 47 km from Greater Noida to Delhi without being intercepted.

The bench further clarified that it is not assessing individual culpability, but “the broader institutional failures that transcend any single case.”

In the aforesaid, notice was issued to the Chief Secretary of the Government of NCT of Delhi, the Commissioner of Police, Delhi, and the Registrar General of the Delhi High Court.

Senior Advocate Liz Mathew has been appointed Amicus Curiae in the case.

The matter will now be heard on October 5, 2026.

Case: In Re: Recent Rape Incidents in Delhi NCR

Citation : 2026 LiveLaw (SC) 996

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