Inadequacy of protection officers under the DV act must be addressed: SC
Last Updated on February 27, 2023 by Administrator
On Friday, 24th February 2023, the Supreme Court directed the secretary of the union ministry of women and child development for convening a meeting with the principal secretaries of all the states and the Union Territories where they were told to investigate the issue of the inadequacy under the protection of women from domestic violence act, 2005 regarding the protection Officers.
The court had sought the attendance of the secretaries of the union ministry of finance, social justice, and home affairs as well as the chairperson of the National commission for women and a nominee of the chairperson of the national human rights commission and chairperson of NALSA. The court had directed the government that a meeting should be conducted as early as possible within the period of 3 months.
The bench, composed of Justices Ravindra Bhat and Dipankar Dutta, asked the ministry of women and child development to get the records regarding the implementation of the umbrella scheme of Mission Shakti. The court asked for information pertaining to the concept of the number one stop centers that were proposed to be set up in the district as well as the pattern of staffing in these centers and what has been the response that has been received on the distress calls.
The court even asked the center to declare the details of the common portal and the dashboard that must be set up and present in front of the court the materials on the efficacy of the mission shakti as it has been predicted by the center to be an umbrella scheme for the implementation of the domestic violence act. The bench had directed the union to file an affidavit for the actions that have been taken by it, and the deadline for the same is six weeks.
To the question of the data, the union government presented the supreme court with the data regarding the litigation under the DV Act in each state. NALSA also conducted a study which concluded that there have been 4.71 lakh cases of the domestic violence act that have been pending in the courts as of 1.07.2022.
As per the same study, the number of protection officers is also relatively compared to the number of issues that have been pending. Union said that under the mission shakti, 801 one-stop centers have been established. If an average of one officer in a district is being taken then the average of 500 cases has to be taken up by one officer. The study said that sensitization of the officers is an important activity that must be taken up along with increasing their number.
Case Title:- We The Women of India v. UoI And Ors.
Written By – Shianjany Pradhan
