No safety for women in Indian capital: supreme court

Activists hold placards as they chant slogans during a protest in Patna, capital of Bihar, India.Grief-stricken Indian students took to the streets in the hundred to express anger at the death in Singapore of the 23-year-old medical student who was gang raped and brutalized.The court said it is very concerned about providing a safe environment for women so they could live with dignity. (Xinhua)

India's Supreme Court Friday said that "there is no safety for women" amid the prevailing law and order situation in the capital while responding to a public plea after the recent horrific gangrape of a 23-year-old woman.

"We are failing to treat women with dignity, equality and respect," the apex court observed as it issued notices to the central government and the National Commission for Women on a public plea by a student, questioning the validity of the two finger tests usually conducted on rape victims.

The plea by Nipun Saxena, a student of Delhi's National Law University says that the invasive two finger tests were against the dignity of women and it also demanded the setting up of a criminal injury compensation board in the country, which was ordered by the Supreme Court some 16 years ago.

The two-judge bench of the court also asked the Delhi government to respond to a demand for cancellation of the license of private buses if they violate any traffic law.

The plea came nearly a month after a Delhi University medical student was gangraped by six men on a moving bus, who subsequently beat her up along with her boyfriend and threw them off the moving vehicle in the Indian capital on Dec. 16 last year.

The victim later died at a hospital in Singapore, where she was shifted after her condition worsened at a government hospital in the national capital.

All the six accused are currently in judicial custody facing rape and murder charges, which carry a maximum of death sentence. However, the sixth accused, a 17-year-old juvenile, may get away with lighter punishment as the same laws may not apply in his case if he proved to be under 18 years of age.

The incident sparked massive public outcry with demands for stricter and harsher punishment for sexual assault on women.