The Kerala High Court has ruled that a person availing a sex worker’s service at a brothel can be prosecuted under the Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act since the payments made for such services amount to inducing prosecution.
In a crucial judgement, Justice V.G. Arun observed that sex workers cannot be treated as commodities in commercial transactions.
The court also remarked that the persons seeking such services at a brothel cannot be treated as just ‘customers’, since they are active participants in exploitation of sex workers.
“To be a customer a person should buy some goods or services. A sex worker cannot be denigrated as a product. In most cases, they are lured into the trade through human trafficking and compelled to offer his/her body to satisfy the carnal pleasure of others,” Justice Arun said.
The court further noted that though the pleasure seeker may be paying money for the service, a large chunk of it goes to the brothel owner.
“The payment therefore can only be perceived as an inducement to make the sex worker offer his/ her body and act in accordance with the demands of the payer," it said.
The case stems from an incident where the Thiuruvananthapuram police raided a building in the city and arrested a man and woman, along with two others who were allegedly running the brothel.
The man, who was charged under Sections 3, 4, 5(1)(d), and 7 of the ITP Act, moved the court seeking to quash the charges against him. He argued that sex workers canvassed for clients and as a customer, he was merely availing their services.
After hearing the submissions, the court quashed proceedings against him under Sections 3 and 4—which deal with the owning and managing the brothel—but prosecution under Sections 5(1)(d) and 7 (prostitution in or in the vicinity of public places) of the Act.
