Allahabad HC Directs Railways Ministry To Specify Measures Taken To Curb Sexual Crimes Against Women In Trains, Rly Stations

A bench of Justice Attau Rahman Masoodi and Justice Brij Raj Singh issued the notice in a suo motu Public Interest Litigation (PIL) plea initiated in 2016 over an incident of gang rape of a woman in a moving train.

Noting that incidents of such description have come to the notice of this Court previously also, wherein certain directions were issued to Union of India, Ministry of Railways, the Court directed that a notice be issued to the Ministry of Railways to show cause as to what measures have been taken by the Ministry of Railways to curb such incidents in the running trains and at the railway stations operated by the Ministry.

Regarding the 2016 gang rape incident, the Court was informed by the AGA-I that the victim had been paid a sum of Rs. 2,81,000/- towards compensation out of the total compensation of Rs. 3,75,000/-.

To this, the Bench directed the AGA to obtain instructions as to why the remaining amount had not been paid to the victim before the next date of listing.

With this, the matter has now been listed for further hearing in the week commencing 4th March 2024

In related news, the High Court last year took suo moto cognizance of the brutal attack on a woman cop ('X') while she was on duty on the Saryu Express on the intervening night of 30-31 August.