Court No. - 34
Case :- PUBLIC INTEREST LITIGATION (PIL) No. - 654 of 2019 Petitioner :- Lokesh Kumar Khurana And Another Respondent :- State Of U.P. And 3 Others Counsel for Petitioner :- Kamal Krishna Roy,Charlie Prakash Counsel for Respondent :- C.S.C.
Hon'ble Sudhir Agarwal,J. Hon'ble Rajendra Kumar-IV,J.
1. Heard Sri K.K. Roy, Advocate for petitioners and learned Standing Counsel for respondents.
2. This writ petition as a Public Interest Litigation has been filed seeking a mandamus commanding Respondent-4, Senior Superintendent of Police, Meerut to ensure regular patrolling of police at every sensitive area, colleges, coaching institutes, offices and markets and also to ensure installation of CCTV at every important places to record activities and vehicular movements. Petitioners have also sought a mandamus commanding Respondent-4 to constitute a special cell, deploying plain cloth women constables to ensure safety of girl students. In support of submission learned counsel for petitioners placed on record copy of some first information reports, details of crime of kidnapping and abduction in State of U.P. in 2016 and also an interlocutory order dated 20.06.2013 passed by this Court in Public Interest Litigation (PIL) No. 34132 of 2013 (Arushi Bajpai and others vs. Union of India and others).
3. We find that Public Interest Litigation (PIL) No. 34132 of 2013 alongwith some others came to be finally decided vide judgment dated 01.09.2014 passed by a Division Bench presided by Hon'ble Dr. Dhananjaya Yeshwant Chandrachud, C.J. (as His Lordship then was) and Court disposed of all the petitions considering steps taken by State with regard to prevention of crime against women as explained in the affidavit. Relevant part of judgment is reproduced as under:
“The State has explained on affidavit the steps which have been taken to prevent crimes against women. These include:
(i) Constitution of a Women's Cell at the level of the Director General of Police Headquarters and a senior Woman Police Officer has been nominated as In-charge of the Cell to monitor complaints, FIRs, serious incidents and inquiry/investigation at the State level. Smt. Neeti Dwivedi, C.O. City-III has been appointed as Nodal Officer, a Helpline has been set up and a portal has been established for monitoring the situation. In addition, certain directions have been issued on 15 June 2014 by the Senior Superintendent of Police;
(ii) A new software, namely Heinous Crime Monitoring System, for monitoring heinous crimes has been developed by the police by which details of such offences and criminals are available on line through which monitoring and supervision are done at the range, zone and district levels;
(iii) A special women's helpline 1090 has been developed to monitor crimes against women. Between 15 November 2012 and 31 May 2014, about 2,19,018 complaints received over the helpline have been resolved;
(iv) In all the districts, a facility of dialling telephone number 100 in the Control Room has been provided. Any person can inform the Control Room about offences specially against women;
(v) A special cell has been set up to deal with obscene messages/calls received by women;
(vi) In order to ensure quick disposal of cases involving offences against women, a Committee of three Senior Superintendents of Police has been constituted at the State level. In the police training institute, the subjects relating to trafficking and sensitisation have been included;
(vii) To prevent offences against women, Women Police Stations have been established in all the districts of the State and at every police station of the State, a special unit has been constituted in which Juvenile Officers have been appointed of the Sub-Inspector level with a view to prevent crimes against women;
(viii) A modern control room facility has been established at Allahabad, Ghaziabad, Lucknow and Kanpur for providing effective policing and;
(ix) In all the districts of the State, a crime branch has been established for improvement of the quality of investigation and for improvement of the law and order situation.
The counter affidavit, which has been filed on behalf of the State is indicative of the steps which have been taken to investigate the cases relating to the practise of exorcism and of ensuring that the offenders are traced and are made accountable for their acts under the penal law.
Apart from this, it is necessary for the State to ensure that due and necessary steps are taken on occasions such as Magh Mela and on other days such as Dussehara, Amavasya, Navratri etc. where a large number of people gather near the Sangam area and where it has been noticed that the practise of exorcism is being carried out. Adequate and stringent policing would have to be ensured on days where such incidents have taken place in the past. The State shall take all necessary steps and measures, including deployment of adequate police personnel and the setting up of CCTV Cameras to prevent such incidents. Apart from this, the State shall take all necessary steps for spreading awareness in the citizens to curb the practice. In this regard, it would be appropriate if the State together with the District and State Legal Services Authority launches an awareness campaign to emphasise the need to prevent such social evils and of sensitising citizens on a high priority. Cases which are already under investigation, as pointed out in the counter affidavit of the Senior Superintendent of Police, would be taken to their logical conclusion and shall be dealt with and monitored by the Women's Cell which has been constituted by the State.
With these directions, PIL No.33084 of 2014 and PIL No.5443 of 2014 shall stand disposed of. PIL No.34350 of 2013 and PIL No.34351of 2013, which were based on newspaper reports, do not merit any further directions in view of the directions issued by the Court as aforesaid and are, accordingly, disposed of.
Insofar as PIL No.34132 of 2013 is concerned, learned Chief Standing Counsel has informed the Court that the Cabinet has, two days ago, cleared the proposal for the setting up of seventy five Fast Track Courts in every district of the State and has concurred with the request of the High Court that all necessary steps would now be taken on a war footing so that the Fast Track Courts are set up at the earliest. In this regard, we direct the Law Secretary to take coordinated steps in consultation with the Registrar General of this Court, so that all the remaining formalities are completed at an early date. PIL No. 34132 of 2013 is also, accordingly, disposed of.
We clarify that in view of the fact that the petitions have now been disposed of, the directions contained in the interim order dated 1 July 2014 will no longer survive and the interim order dated 1 July 2014 shall stand vacated.
There shall be no order as to costs.”
4. Since this Court has already considered the matter and passed order, we do not find that involving similar issue any further writ petition as Public Interest Litigation need be entertained since there is no occasion to multiply writ petitions involving similar matters for similar direction. If there is any non compliance of judgment dated 01.09.2014 passed in Public Interest Litigation (PIL) No. 33084 of 2014 (Tavishi Srivastava and others vs. State of U.P. and others) and other connected matters, it is open to petitioners to avail such remedy as available in law but there is no occasion for issuing similar directions in a matter involving similar complaint as was considered by this Court in Public Interest Litigations (PIL) No. 34132 of 2013; 34351 of 2013; 34350 of 2013 and 5443 of 2014, which have been decided vide judgment dated 01.09.2014.
5. The writ petition is accordingly dismissed.
Order Date :- 26.4.2019 AK