The Bombay High Court a issued contempt notice against the Principal Home Secretary today, after taking note of the Maharashtra government's inaction in implementing the Justice (Retd) Chandrashekhar Dharmadhikari Committee's recommendations to curb crimes against women.
A bench of Justice Abhay Oka observed that a contempt notice is being issued because despite the court's repeated enquiries, the Maharashtra state government had not informed what steps are being taken by it to implement the committee's recommendations.
The contempt notice is returnable on September 29 when the state of Maharashtra would have to argue why contempt action should not be initiated against it for not implementing recommendations of the committee.
The Maharashtra government had appointed Justice (Retd) Chandrashekhar Dharmadhikari to head the committee formed in 2010, to suggest measures to curb crimes against women.
The committee, which comprised senior women political leaders, social activists as well as bureaucrats, submitted various reports as well as recommendations after studying laws related to crimes against women in the state and the country.
The PIL pointed out that the Maharashtra state government has not yet decided its course of action on recommendations made by the Justice Dharmadhikari Committee to curb crimes against women.
The High Court was hearing a suo moto (on its own) public interest litigation (PIL) based on newspaper reports and another PIL filed by an NGO called the Help Mumbai Foundation about women's safety while travelling in suburban local trains.
During the last hearing, the Union Government had informed the court that the Railway Board is ready to bear 50 per cent of expenses to hire and deploy an additional 100 Government Railway Police (GRP) personnel on suburban local trains, in the interest of women's safety, while the rest of the expenses would have to be borne by the state government.
