In the context of a growing national concern over incidents of sexual assault against women, the Supreme Court of India agreed on Friday to consider the need for establishing mandatory guidelines to ensure prompt police investigations into complaints about missing girls and women. The petition was brought by the minor daughter and sister of a murdered nurse from Rudrapur, represented by senior advocate Nitya Ramakrishnan. They highlighted what they described as significant police inaction regarding their missing person complaint filed on July 31. The nurse’s body was discovered on August 8.
Ramakrishnan urged the Court to mandate a standard operating procedure for police across the country to follow with urgency upon receiving complaints about missing girls and women. The Court issued notices to both the Union and Uttarakhand governments, requesting their responses to the petition. Additionally, the petition sought an independent investigation into the nurse’s murder by a central agency under the supervision of a retired Supreme Court judge.
The petitioners also referenced a recent rape-cum-murder incident at R G Kar Medical College and Hospital and requested the Court to issue nationwide guidelines to protect hospital staff, regardless of their position. They proposed the creation of a centralized alert system to be triggered when a woman is reported missing and cannot be located within a reasonable timeframe. Furthermore, they requested that the Supreme Court direct the Uttarakhand government to provide compensation under the Uttarakhand Compensation Scheme for Women Victims/ Survivors of Sexual Assault/ Other Crimes, 2022.
