Will consider plea for separate agency to deal with trafficking cases ‘seriously’: SC

Little effort is usually made to find the sources who finance the trafficking operations, Ms. Bhat noted.

The Supreme Court on Tuesday made it clear that it will seriously consider arguments for a separate agency to investigate and prosecute cases of human trafficking and for a separate and comprehensive protocol to take care of the safety of the victims of the crime.

Appearing before a Bench headed by Justice J.B. Pardiwala, senior advocate Aparna Bhat, for petitioner NGO Prajwala, said very often the people who control the trafficking escape the police dragnet.

She pointed out that accused persons arrested or dragged into trafficking cases were mostly people found on the spot, which were usually the low-level operators and victims.

Little effort is usually made to find the sources who finance the trafficking operations, Ms. Bhat noted.

“Today there is no institutional framework to comprehensively deal with human trafficking,” the senior lawyer submitted.

Ms. Bhat referred to a December 9, 2015 order of the Supreme Court which had recorded the Home Ministry’s assurance to set up the ‘Organised Crime Investigative Agency (OCIA)’ by September 2016.

She also referred to the Women and Child Development Ministry’s policy decision in November 2015 to constitute a committee for preparing a “comprehensive legislation dealing with the subject of trafficking”.

Responding for the Union government, Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati submitted that the new criminal laws, namely, the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita Act, the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita Act, and the Bharatiya Sakshya Act, all of which came into effect on July 1, 2024 comprehensively deal with trafficking.

Ms. Bhati said the Trafficking of Persons (Prevention, Protection and Rehabilitation) Bill had been passed by the Lok Sabha in 2018, but lapsed with the dissolution of the 16th Lok Sabha.

On the aspect of a new agency, Ms. Bhati said the National Investigation Agency (NIA) along with the new criminal laws and the Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act of 1955 “meet the needs originally envisioned for the OCIA and the proposed trafficking legislation” more robustly.

The Bench reserved the case for judgment.

Published - December 18, 2024 04:55 am IST