An acid attack survivor's heartbreaking plea for justice – still absent, 16 years after the barbaric assault – and a simultaneous appeal to help other women, including those forced to drink the substance – prompted shock and outrage from the Supreme Court Thursday morning.
A bench led by Chief Justice Surya Kant demanded the Delhi court hearing her case do so on a daily basis and called the delayed trial "a shame… a mockery of the system" and said those guilty of acid attacks cannot receive any sympathy from the law enforcement system.
On the appeal to help women compelled to drink acid - they are not offered similar protection under current laws, the petitioner said – the court issued a notice to the union government.
"The offence is of 2009 and the trial has not yet been completed! If the national capital cannot respond to these challenges then who will deal with it? It is a shame on the system."
The court was responding to a petition that said the Delhi acid attack survivor had lost trust and faith in the judicial system till one judge began hearing her case, and this relief prompted her to take up arms for other women who had suffered similarly horrific and inhuman assaults.
"Acid was thrown on me. I am covered under the law but many others are forced to drink acid… and they are not covered," she said, pointing to instances where, if the women don't die, they are left with severe and long-term medical issues and physical disabilities, including being unable to walk or eat, in which case they have to have pipes shoved into their mouths to be given food.
The court issued a notice to the government to consider brining an ordinance to include such cases under the current law, particularly with regard to medical care and compensation, and directed all lower courts to submit data about ongoing acid attack trials in their jurisdictions.
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