The plea came in the wake of the deaths of two girls in Pune in September. The petitioner alleged that despite making complaints, the police failed to take any action, resulting in the tragic deaths of the girls.

Sixteen-year-old Neeta Hendre, studying in the XIth standard in MES college, was being harassed by her neighbour, Satish Wavbande. Hendre's parents had complained that Wavbande had been harassing Neeta for a month to the Dutta Wadi police station, but no action was taken. On September 23, Wavbande kidnapped Neeta. Her body was found on September 25, the throat slit. The post mortem report said that she was killed by strangulation.

In the other case, Archana Shetge committed suicide fearing reprisals from one 22-year-old Bandu Maruti Jori, whose marriageproposal she had spurned.Claiming that there was a surge in such cases in the state, the petitioner prayed for a special cell to handle such cases within every commissionerate.

The state has been asked to file an affidavit. The matter is to come up before the bench of Justice A V Sawant and Justice S S Parkar on October 26.