The High Court has given the government 30 days to form a commission to come up with recommendations to prevent rape and sexual assault.
The bench of justices FRM Nazmul Ahasan and K M Kamrul Kader gave the order on Sunday (Jan 19) after the initial hearing of a public interest litigation petition.
The law ministry has been ordered to form the commission, comprising of representatives of the petitioner, rights activists, representatives from the media, lawyers, judges, doctors and representatives from the civil society.
The court said victims of sexual assaults can be included in the commission, if they agree to be a part of it.
The commission has been told to formulate a set of recommendations and file a report to the court within six months.
Apart from the interim orders, the court also issued a rule asking why the government's inactivity to incorporate death sentence into the law in case of rape victims under 16 years old would not be declared illegal.
The rule also pulled up the government for its inactivity revoking the provision of life-term, keeping only capital punishment, for deaths due to rape.
The court also issued another rule asking why it would not order the government to set up separate court for rapes and speedy disposal of the cases, to formulate witness protection laws for rape victims, maintaining a DNA database of rape perpetrators, setting up One-Stop Crisis centres in every district.
The law ministry and others concerned have been ordered to come up with explanations.