“Prostitution Not An Offence; Adult Woman Has Right To Choose Her Vocation”: Bombay HC

Breaking the centuries-long taboo on sex workers, Bombay High Court on Thursday set free three sex workers detained at a correction hostel observing that prostitution is no offense under the law.

The phenomenal judgment further read that an adult woman has the right to choose her vocation and cannot be detained without her consent.

“There is no provision under the law which makes prostitution per se a criminal offense or punishes a person because she indulges in prostitution,” said Justice Prithviraj Chavan stressing that the purpose and the object of the Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act (PITA), 1956 is not to abolish prostitution.

The Single Bench of the judge further clarified that the law is exploitation or abuse of a person for commercial purposes and soliciting in public places is what is punishable.

“What is punishable under the Act is sexual exploitation or abuse of a person for commercial purpose and to earn the bread thereby. And where a person is carrying on prostitution in a public place or when a person is found soliciting or seducing another person as defined under the Act,” said Justice Chavan.

The high court also noted that the women were adults and were entitled to freedom as per the Constitution.

“It is important to note that the petitioners/victims are major and, therefore, have a right to reside at the place of their choice, to move freely throughout the territory of India and to choose their own vocation, as enshrined the Constitution of India,” the judge pronounced.

The three young women aged 20, 22, and 23, respectively were rescued by social services and sent for correction a year ago from a Malad Guest House along with a pimp who was arrested. They were produced before a metropolitan magistrate, who remanded them to a women’s hostel. The magistrate further refused to hand over the custody of the women to their respective mothers as the magistrate found that it was not in the interest of the women to stay with their parents. It was directed that the women be kept at a women’s hostel in Uttar Pradesh.

The then judgment was based on the report by the probationary officer which stated that the women were from a particular community from Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh, and there was a long tradition of prostitution in the community.

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