Delhi’s Aam Aadmi Party government has formed a Commission of Inquiry to look into the “unheeded” complaints of women by the police recommending action in cases of crime against women and amendments to existing laws.
The three-member commission will be headed by a retired district judge Dinesh Dayal. The commission will receive complaints, including on violence, sexual harassment, stalking and voyeurism against women since February 2013.
The appointment of the probe panel was notified by Delhi Women and Child Development Department on 19 January.
The decision to set up an inquiry commission was taken during a special assembly seesion in August by the Arvind Kejriwal government. This was necessitated by the brutal murder of a 19-year-old girl in Anand Parbat area in Delhi on 16 July 2014.
Although the commission has been given a tenure of two years but it’s expected to submit its report to the government every three months from the date of its first sitting.
“Its scope of work also includes suggesting necessary amendments to relevant laws, if any. It will also need to recommend to the government if any case of negligence or collusion is made out prima facie in the cases examined,” a senior official was quoted by the PTI.
The commission is likely to recommend measures to expedite all the proceedings in crimes against women, suggest actions for proper implementation of existing laws and the Verma committee recommendations to ensure there are no recurrences similar incidents in future.
The Delhi government official added, “It is also expected to recommend welfare measures for improving the working condition of the real foot soldiers in the law enforcing agencies and address any other issue which it may find relevant during the course of its inquiry.”
(With inputs from PTI)
