The Supreme Court on Thursday asked the Centre to formulate a national uniform policy for providing relief to rape survivors as setting up of a separate fund like the ‘Nirbhaya fund’ was not enough, and amounted to “just a lip service”, a vacation bench of Justices P =C Pant and DY Chandrachud said.
The bench issued notices to the Centre, and states asking for their responses on the implementation of Section 357(A) of the CrPC and status of victim compensation schemes, along with the number of victims of rape who have been compensated.
The bench, while hearing a batch of petitions, prima facie agreed to the plea that there was lack of uniformity in compensation schemes, but noted that some states even provide compensation to victims of sexual offences just on registration of the FIRs.
Six petitions have been filed in the Supreme Court after the Nirbhaya gangrape, raising various concerns on safety and security of women. All the petitions were tagged by the apex court and several directions have been passed from time to time in this regard.
(With PTI Inputs)
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