Kerala High Court says prostitute`s customer can be booked under Immoral Traffic Prevention Act

The Kerala High Court has said that a customer visiting a prostitute can also be booked under the Immoral Traffic Prevention Act. The HC said that the person can be prosecuted under Section 7 of the Act. It said that immoral traffic or sexual exploitation cannot be perpetrated or carried on without a customer. The court said that the term prostitution is defined as the sexual exploitation or abuse of persons for commercial purposes. It said that since sexual exploitation cannot be done singularly, the person engaged in the act of exploitation is also a person who falls within the term 'persons with whom such prostitution is carried on'.

Kerala HC Justice Bechu Kurian Thomas made the remarks while hearing a case filed by a person charged under Sections 3 (punishment for keeping a brothel or allowing premises to be used as a brothel), 4 (punishment for living on the earnings of prostitution), and 7 (Prostitution in or in the vicinity of public places) of the Act.

Explaining further, the court said that if a person exploits or abuses the prostitute, it is that person with whom the prostitute carries on prostitution. "Thus, immoral traffic cannot be perpetrated or carried on without a customer," said the Court.

According to a Bar and Bench report, it was submitted before the court that the Investigating Officer found the petitioner engaged in a sexual act with the two prostitutes after paying Rs 500 and thus he was booked for offences under Sections 3, 4, and 7 of the Act.

The petitioner, however, refused the allegations and claimed that he had approached the Ayurvedic Hospital for treatment of his back pain and the doctor on duty had prescribed oil massage for a period of thirty days.

The petitioner contended that even if the allegations are assumed to be true, he being only a customer, cannot be prosecuted as the statute does not contemplate prosecuting a customer. To this, the court noted that a customer falls under the words 'person with whom such prostitution is carried on' as appearing in Section 7(1) of the Act and, therefore, dismissed the petition.