NEW DELHI, Feb 25: The Supreme Court has asked the Centre to convene a meeting of the Principal Secretaries of all states to look into the issues pertaining to the implementation of the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, observing that more than 4.71 lakh cases of domestic violence were pending in the country as on July 2022.
Referring to the appointment of Protection Officers under the Act, the Apex Court observed that the overall picture presented before it is “dismal”.
A bench of Justices SR Bhat and Dipankar Datta said having one such officer for one district would be grossly inadequate as each one of them would be handling nearly 500-600 cases.
“In these circumstances, it would be necessary that the Union of India takes an intensive look into this aspect,” the bench observed on Friday while hearing a plea seeking adequate infrastructure across the country for providing effective legal aid to women abused in matrimonial homes and creating shelter homes for them.
The Apex Court directed the secretary of the Ministry of Women and Child Development to convene a meeting of the Principal Secretaries of all States and Union Territories to deal with the issue.
It said the meeting should also be attended by the secretaries of the ministries of finance, home and social justice and the nominees of the chairpersons of the National Commission for Women and National Legal Services Authority (NALSA).
It said the first meeting should preferably be called within three weeks.
The bench also directed that a status report regarding the implementation of “Mission Shakti”, an integrated women empowerment programme, be also placed on record.
It said specific information on various aspects, including on the number of one-stop centres proposed in each district, be also placed before it.
The top court said the Centre shall provide material indicating how “Mission Shakti” would act as an umbrella scheme for the implementation of the Act.
The bench observed that in pursuance of an earlier apex court order, a study was conducted by the NALSA, which indicated that more than 4.71 lakh cases lodged under the Act were pending in the country as on July 1, 2022.
It has posted the matter for further hearing after eight weeks.
The apex court had, in April last year, directed the NALSA to apprise it of the number of cases initiated and pending under the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005.
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