Revamp 100 helpline: Delhi HC tells Centre

New Delhi: The Delhi high court asked the Centre and the Delhi police to monitor the 100 emergency helpline number to ensure it becomes “more efficient and effective”.

“The respondents 1 to 3 (Central government ministries and Delhi police) shall continue to monitor the system and ensure that service on 100 (helpline) becomes more efficient and effective,” a bench of Chief Justice G. Rohini and Justice Sangita Dhingra Sehgal.

The direction came on a PIL initiated by the high court after Justice Vipin Sanghi’s call to the emergency helpline number went unanswered.

The court disposed of the petition based on a submission made earlier by the ministry of home affairs  that priority routing of emergency calls has been taken up with the authorities to tackle the issue of calls queuing up at the end of telecom service providers. The Centre had also submitted that the Department of Telecommunications  has taken up the problem of network congestion with the service providers and soon there would be a plausible and effective system.

The bench noted that “concrete steps are being taken by the authorities to check that any call made to 100 number is answered immediately.”

The court had on its own converted into a PIL a letter, written to the police commissioner as well as the chief justice of the Delhi high court, by Justice Sanghi regarding his experience when he had called the emergency number.

In his letter, Justice Sanghi had narrated his “poor personal experience” of calling on the helpline on April 29, 2016 when he was on his way to Vasant Kunj here to attend a wedding reception.