HC raps Centre for insufficient steps to improve security

The Delhi High Court today termed as insufficient the steps taken by Centre to improve overall security situation in the national Capital and rapped it for not providing "concrete proposals" to deal with the issue.
"Do you (Centre's counsel) want us to say that Union of India is not concerned about safety of citizens of Delhi? We are telling you in a very polite language but you are not understanding this. This is not sufficient. Do not force us to make statements. Where are your concrete proposals?," a bench of Justices B D Ahmed and Sanjeev Sachdeva asked.
The bench also pulled up the Delhi government saying "nobody was serious" despite the fact that thousands of samples were pending in the forensic science laboratories due to which probe in criminal cases were hampered.

"According to Delhi Police, approximately 11,000 samples are pending in the forensic labs and this will hamper so many criminal probes. Nobody is serious about it. Both governments (Centre and Delhi) can say let law of 'jungle' prevail here and everybody can do whatever they want," it said.
The court had earlier directed Centre to increase manpower in police while the Delhi government was asked to set up more forensic labs.
As the hearing commenced today, the bench asked both the Centre and Delhi government about their "concrete proposals" on these issue.

When the Centre's counsel said that various vacancies have been filled, the bench said, "You are not bothered".

"You are not functioning in a way we want you to act on the issue. Are you serious?," the bench asked the Centre.
The Centre, however, said that process of filling other vacancies was going on.
"The Home Ministry says go ahead. They approve everything but the Ministry of Finance says no. What is the stand of the Government of India?" the bench asked.
The Centre's counsel told the court that Finance Ministry has to take a call as they will give the funds.
He said that a committee, formulated to look into the matter, would give its report on the issue soon.

"How long we will wait? Why do such decisions take so long? Take a decision. We cannot force you, we can only tell you. If you do not have the funds then tell us, we will close the matter. What is your proposal for security of Delhi?," the bench said.
The court thereafter asked the lawyer appearing for Delhi Police, "Why are you not filling the vacancies?"
Delhi government's senior standing counsel Rahul Mehra
told the bench that he would file a detailed report on this issue giving all the datas as well as the proposals to deal with it.

"This is not a light matter. This is a serious issue," the court said and fixed the matter for further hearing on May 27.
It also asked the Delhi government to file an affidavit regarding the progress made by it on this issue.
The Centre, in its affidavit, had earlier said that Delhi police had forwarded majority of its proposals for manpower directly to the Ministry of Home Affairs "without any scrutiny or recommendation of the Administrator and thus a high level committee has been set up to take a holistic view regarding manpower requirement".
The data filed earlier by Delhi police showed that of the 14270 criminal cases decided by sessions court between January 1, 2011 and December 31, 2015, 61 per cent were acquittals. In Delhi High Court the percentage had increased to 81 per cent.

The court was hearing a PIL initiated by it after the December 16, 2012 sensational gangrape case, in which it has been periodically giving directions with regard to improving crime investigation and protection of women.