Prostitution is never a crime according to the law. However, forcing someone into this profession or running a brothel is a crime. Such is the observation of the Bombay High Court. The High Court also said that showing a person the temptation to engage in prostitution is also a crime. But the Bombay High Court has ruled that it is never a crime for an adult woman to enter the profession voluntarily.
Any adult woman has the right to choose the profession of her choice. No one can be punished for this. The High Court ruled that the three female sex workers detained should be released immediately.
It may be mentioned that a few days ago, the police found a beehive in Malad, Maharashtra and conducted a search there. Three women and a man named Nizamuddin Khan were arrested. It was later learned that the three women belonged to the Bedia community, who were sent into prostitution after a certain age.
With that in mind, the Bombay High Court pronounced the verdict. A bench of High Court Justice Prithviraj Chauhan on Thursday ruled that prostitution would not be a crime under the Immortal Traffic (Prevention) Act, 1956. Earlier, the magistrate’s court had directed that the three women be kept in a home in Maharashtra. The Sessions Court also upheld the judgment of the Magistrate. But the Bombay High Court on Saturday said there were no charges against the three women. Prostitution is not a crime. Those three women are adults. So they have to give up.
The High Court said on the same day that it was not proved here that the three women had forcibly lured someone into the prostitution business or lured someone into the profession. So no crime is proved against them. They are not running any brothel. As a result, the court ordered the release of the three women.