The Delhi high court on Thursday expressed its anguish at the thin presence of women personnel in the city police force. “Knowing well what incidents are happening in the city, at least 50 per cent of the posts should be filled by women personnel. To reach 30 per cent reservation for women, it will take 10 years,” a bench of Delhi HC Chief Justice N.V. Ramana and Justice Manmohan said in reference to a police report giving details of the total number of personnel in the force. The bench was hearing the December 16 gangrape case of which it had taken suo motu cognisance. The counsel appearing for the police admitted that the ratio of the men to women in the Delhi police was less than six per cent. The court also directed the Centre to apprise it about the steps taken to sensitise the public on issues related to women’s safety. The bench also expressed its displeasure over the time taken by the city government’s forensic laboratory to examine criminal evidence. “If the forensic lab takes years to examine a case and send a report, how do you expect the courts to dispose of the case.” The court’s observation came after the Delhi government said in an affidavit that the only state-run Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) in the city, at Rohini, gets a large number of cases, leading to backlogs. According to the affidavit, as of August 31, 2013, a total of 10,332 cases are pending although manpower, space and other infrastructure had not increased commensurately. Further, the government said it had decided to establish three regional FSLs in view of the large number of cases, but DDA is yet to sanction land. The bench asked the lieutenant-governor, who is the DDA chairman, to hold a meeting with the departments concerned to address the issue with land as also the other shortcomings. Earlier, the court had asked the police to file an affidavit disclosing the number of vacancies of assistant sub-inspector (ASI), sub-inspector and inspector-rank, including the number of women personnel, in the force. The court had also asked the Centre and Delhi government to file affidavits enumerating the number of forensic laboratories in the city and the time taken by them in completing reports in each case.
