On September 28, 2026, the Supreme Court of India took suo motu cognisance of a series of sexual assault incidents involving minors and women in the Delhi‑NCR region. A bench comprising Justices J.B. Pardiwala and K. Vinod Chandran asked the Delhi Police to provide a response and highlighted that public spaces such as parks, buses and metro stations should not become “zones of high risk” due to administrative shortcomings.
The Court cited several recent cases, including the alleged rape of a 17‑year‑old girl at Astha Kunj park near Lady Shri Ram College, a gang‑rape of a minor in Swaroop Nagar, and the sexual assault of another minor on a bus traveling from Greater Noida to Delhi. These incidents were presented as evidence of a failure by law‑enforcement and public‑administration authorities to guarantee basic public safety.
The bench observed that inadequate illumination, poor surveillance, lax patrolling and other preventable administrative deficiencies prevent public spaces—roads, buses, metro stations, footbridges and subways—from being safe for citizens. The Court warned that such conditions cannot be tolerated.
The Court drew a painful parallel with the 2012 Nirbhaya case, noting that the bus incident, which travelled nearly 47 km without stopping at any police picket, raised questions about whether systemic law‑enforcement mechanisms had made any meaningful progress in the decade since then.
While acknowledging public authorities’ expressions of concern, the bench said that solidarity alone does not address the institutional problem. It called for a measurable response with accountability fixed on the authorities responsible for crime prevention, public order and protection of vulnerable persons. The Court also questioned the police response in the Astha Kunj case, noting that complaints of sexual harassment by Lady Shri Ram College students had previously gone unaddressed and failed to rectify security lapses through advanced surveillance.
