The Patna High Court, on the 3rd of February, took a suo moto cognizance case against the exploitation of women at state-run shelter homes.
After the 2018, Muzaffarpur incident, this is the second such case reported in Patna, Bihar, raising questions on the State Government. Considering the matter as the Public Interest Litigation (PIL,) the HC criticized the Government, saying such news is a failure of the government.
In a detailed statement, the Patna High Court said, “Another shocking disclosure has been made by her that strangers are permitted to masquerade as relatives of the victims who come and pick up such hapless women to put their lives and dignity in further peril. The aforesaid news item in a couple of newspapers is yet again societal/collective failure and shame in not containing such offenses even after this state and the nation had read about the happenings in Balika Grih, Muzaffarpur. What is rather surprising for us to note is that no FIR has been registered on such disclosure of the victim. Even more surprising is that the director of the Social Welfare Department has conducted an inquiry only on the basis of the CCTV footage installed in the shelter home and came to the conclusion that the accusation made by the so-called victim is baseless and false. It does not appear that any inquiry was made with the victim girl and such an opinion has been arrived at by seeing only the footage of the CCTV camera.”
The High Court took serious note of the situation at the “Uttar Raksha Grih” (After Care Home), Gai Ghat, Patna, managed by the state government, where more than 260 women are housed, and convened an emergency meeting of the Juvenile Justice Monitoring Committee to discuss the news report in which a destitute woman, who had alleged that she and others like her, who were residing in the After Care Home was being forced, after being sedated, to “submit themselves to immoral acts of the wrong-doers
Moreover, the HC asked the concerned officials to file an action before the next hearing, on the 7th of February.
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