Supreme Court slams Centre for inaction over direction on sex trafficking

A Supreme Court Bench headed by Justice P.B. Pardiwala has found that a direction to the Home Ministry on December 9, 2015, to set up a dedicated body to probe sex trafficking was discarded.
| Photo Credit: SUSHIL KUMAR VERMA

The government is yet to implement a “comprehensive legislation” against sex trafficking even nine years after a Supreme Court direction in December 2015.

A Supreme Court Bench headed by Justice P.B. Pardiwala found on Tuesday (November 12, 2024) that the direction to the Home Ministry on December 9, 2015, to set up a dedicated body to probe sex trafficking was discarded.

The proposed ‘Organised Crime Investigative Agency’ or OCIA did not see the light of the day. The top court had ordered the Ministry to form the OCIA before September 30, 2016. It was supposed to have been functional before December 1, 2016.

The court had flagged how important the issues of preventing and detecting trafficking and rescuing the victims were.

Law pending

An effort to pass a special law, The Trafficking of Persons (Prevention, Care and Rehabilitation) Bill, 2018, is also stuck.

It had cleared the Lok Sabha but not the Rajya Sabha as Parliament was dissolved before that.

The government, represented by Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati, could only point to amendments made to expand the ambit of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) to include the offence of human trafficking.

The NIA Act was amended in 2019 to enlarge the mandate of the Central agency to include human trafficking, manufacture/sale of prohibited arms, cyber-terrorism and offences under the Explosive Substances Act, 1908 and expand its jurisdiction beyond India.

Justice Pardiwala noted how the Supreme Court had also directed the constitution of a committee under the chairmanship of the Secretary, Ministry of Women and Child Development to prepare a law that would cover prevention, pre- and post- rescue of victims and their rehabilitation.

The panel was tasked to strengthen victim protection protocol and for provision of adequate shelter homes for survivors.

“Prima facie, no effect worth the name was given to the order of December 9, 2015,” Justice Pardiwala recorded in the court order.

The court further asked the government to address it on steps taken to counter the “considerable increase in cyber-enabled sex-trafficking” – a point raised by senior advocate Aparna Bhat, appearing for NGO Prajwala, which had filed the petition against sex trafficking.

The Bench gave the government three weeks to file its response. The case was listed after four weeks.