September 28,2017:

Bench said that it was an “unhappy state of affairs.”

Lack of clarity in rules on how and at what stage should the State Govt. disburse the Compensation under Nirbhaya fund to a rape survivor has prompted  Supreme Court to take up issue and lay down the guidelines for the proper utilisation of money allotted under Scheme.

Noting that there was no nodal ministry in Centre to take the feedback from the States on how money allocated is spent, Apex Court Bench headed by Justice MB Lokur commented it was an “unhappy with state of affairs”.

Advocate Indira Jaising submitted that,”There was an absence of an integrated system of disbursal and management of the money meant to the compensate rape survivors, thus there was need to have uniformity in releasing the funds.

Court stated that as it has fixed October 4,2017 to hear Govt.

Centre had in the year 2013 announced Nirbhaya Fund after the people took to streets in protest against December 16, 2012 Gang Rape and murder of the 23-year-old paramedical student in New Delhi.

Indira Jaising read out Centre’s affidavit that collated the data on How much money the States have spent so far under the scheme. In some instances, the States had not even explained why money was disbursed even though there were no applications from the survivors for the compensation.

Jaising further added that there was a lot of confusion on issue as three ministries involved, Ministry of the Home Affairs, Finance Ministry and Ministry of Women and Child Development were unaware of what was to be done.

Apex Court expressed its displeasure over Centre’s Affidavit and referred to the several discrepancies as cited by Senior Advocate Jaising.