HC concerned over safety, security of women judicial officers

The Delhi High Court today expressed grave concern over safety and security of women judicial officers of subordinate judiciary and asked the city government to ponder over providing separate vehicles, instead of car pooling, to them.
The high court's made the observations when Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal was apprised of an incident faced by a woman judicial officer today in which the driver of the pool cab diverted it towards Hapur in Uttar Pradesh instead of going to the Karkardooma Court in east Delhi.
High Court Registrar General Dinesh Kumar Sharma told PTI that the incident took place when the woman judge was going from Rajinder Nagar in Central Delhi to Karkardooma Court when the driver changed the route.

When the woman officer noticed that she was taken somewhere else, she protested and raised an alarm and the vehicle was stopped. An FIR has been lodged against the cab driver, he said.
Private vehicles are hired by the judiciary through tendering and the payment is sanctioned by the Delhi government.
The incident was immediately brought to the notice of Justice Mittal who expressed concern over the safety and security of judges and spoke to government representative, asking them to consider providing separate cars to judges whose security is "paramount".

The acting chief justice also asked the government to consider the issue in a broader perspective so that no such incident occurs in future.

According to trial court sources, several incidents of misbehaviour with female judicial officers by drivers have taken place in the past.
They said they have been repeatedly telling the government that judges are involved in sensitive cases and it is not proper to hire private vehicles but and the government has not been responding. They are also not giving permission to purchase new vehicles against condemned vehicles, sources said.
Recently, the official vehicle of a sessions judge caught fire and he was rescued by passers-by, they said.
They also said that an administrative direction has been received by the high court to provide separate court vehicles to women judicial officers from tomorrow.