Person availing service of sex worker can be prosecuted for inducing prostitution, says HC

The Kerala High Court has held that a person who availed the services of a sex worker can be prosecuted under the Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act on the charge of inducing prostitution.

The order came on a petition filed by a person who was charged under the Act after he was found with a sex worker at a house in Thiruvananthapuram. He argued that he did not procure or induce sex workers. On the contrary, he was a ‘customer’ who was merely availing the service of a sex worker, and was, hence, not liable under the Act.

Rejecting the argument, a Bench of Justice V.G. Arun said a person who utilised the service of a sex worker at a brothel cannot be termed as a customer. Sex workers cannot be denigrated as a product. This was because in most cases, they were lured into the trade through human trafficking and compelled to offer their body to satisfy the carnal pleasure of others.

Thus, the money paid by people to sex workers could only be perceived as an inducement to make them offer their body. Such people were liable to be prosecuted under the Act.

The court quashed the proceedings against the petitioner under Section 3 (punishment for keeping or managing a brothel) and Section 4 (persons living on the earnings from prostitution) of the Act. But it permitted continuing of prosecution for offences under Section 5(1)(d) (procuring or inducing people for prostitution) and Section 7 (prostitution in or in vicinity of public places) of the Act.