HC raps state govt, cops over plight of one-stop centres

{ DIRECTIONS ISSUED

- Shruti Kakkar

The Delhi High Court on Wednesday pulled up the Delhi government and the city police for the poor state of the capital’s one-stop centres (OSCs), meant to support women affected by violence, after taking cognisance of a HT report that exposed the dire conditions, staff shortages, and infrastructure gaps at several such facilities.

HT’s June 24 report, “Locked doors and empty rooms: Delhi’s one-stop centres are falling apart’, flagged how centres at the Tihar prison complex, Shahdara, Babu Jagjivan Ram Memorial (BJRM) Hospital, and Lok Nayak Hospital were operating with little to no staff and minimal infrastructure.

A bench of chief justice DK Upadhyay and justice Tushar Rao Gedela said the report “gives a telling story of the pathetic situation prevailing in OSCs” and criticised the Delhi government and police for failing to take “necessary steps and action” to implement and promote the objective of these centres.