NEW DELHI: Laying down stringent procedures to curb and punish harassment of women in public transport, the Supreme Court has ordered that in the event of a complaint of a woman, the bus driver must immediately drive the vehicle to the nearest police station. If the driver fails to do so, authorities must cancel his permit to ply.
This is part of a series of directions issued on Friday by the court that include installing CCTVs, setting up helplines and proactive steps by authorities to make public places safer, to curb the menace of women being harassed by offenders passing lewd comments and "singing, reciting or uttering" any obscene song or making sounds or gestures to insult their modesty.
A bench of Justices K S Radhakrishan and Dipak Misra lamented that Tamil Nadu was the only state to have enacted a law against harassment of women but found it to be "toothless".
"We notice there is no uniform law in this country to curb eve-teasing effectively in or within educational institutions, places of worship, bus stands, metro stations, railway stations, cinema theatres, parks, beaches, places of festival, public service vehicles or any other similar places," the bench said.
There were many instances where young girls were harassed, which sometimes had led to serious psychological problems and even saw victims committing suicide, the bench said. It felt "eve-teasing generally occurs in public places which with little effort can be effectively curbed".
Sexual harassment of women as a crime was difficult for the prosecution to prove in a court of law as complaints are often not filed and few witnesses come forward to depose given the snail-paced trial process, the bench said. Hence, it decided to issue a series of directions to curb the menace till legislatures decide to enact an effective law embodying a mechanism to deal with eve-teasers.
Justice Radhakrishna, writing the judgment for the bench, said provisions of the Sexual Harassment at Workplace Bill, 2010, still pending with Parliament, was not enough to curb sexual harassment. So, the bench decided to order states to take following urgent measures to curb sexual harassment.
* All states and UTs are directed to depute plain-clothed female police officers in the precincts of bus-stands and stops, railway stations, metro stations, cinema theatres, shopping malls, parks, beaches, public service vehicles, places of worship to monitor and supervise incidents of sexual harassment.
* States and UTs to install CCTV in strategic positions which itself would be a deterrent and if detected, the offender could be caught.
* Persons in-charge of the educational institutions, places of worship, cinema theatres, railway stations, bus stands have to take steps as they deem fit to prevent sexual harassment, within their precincts and, on a complaint being made, they must pass on the information to the nearest police station or the women's help centre.
* Where any incident of sexual harassment is committed in a public service vehicle either by the passengers or the persons in charge of the vehicle, the crew of such vehicle shall, on a complaint made by the aggrieved person, take such vehicle to the nearest police station and give information to the police. Failure to do so should lead to cancellation of the permit to ply.
* States and UTs are directed to establish women's helpline in various cities and towns to curb sexual harassment within three months.
* Suitable sign boards cautioning act of sexual harassment be exhibited in all public places including precincts of educational institutions, bus stands, railway stations, cinema theatres, parties, beaches, public service vehicles, places of worship etc.
* Responsibility is also on the passersby and on noticing such incident; they should also report it to the nearest police station or to the helpline to save the victims from such crimes.
* States and UTs would take adequate and effective measures by issuing suitable instructions to the authorities concerned including the District Collectors and the District Superintendent of Police in order to take effective and proper measures to curb such incidents of sexual harassment.
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