Sessions court frees sex worker detained for being diagnosed with STD

While ordering to set her free, the sessions court asked the woman to submit an undertaking that she would not indulge in sex work, going forward

MUMBAI: The sessions court on Monday ordered the release of a sex worker, who was detained in a protective home in July, following the orders by the Mazgaon magistrate court, after she was diagnosed with a sexually transmitted disease (STD). While ordering to set her free, the sessions court asked the woman to submit an undertaking that she would not indulge in sex work, going forward.

Sessions court frees sex worker detained for being diagnosed with STD

According to the court, the woman was produced before the judicial magistrate at Mazgaon under the Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act (ITPA) after a complaint was registered at the DB Marg police station. While observing that she might return to sex work and transmit the infection if set free, the magistrate ordered her to be detained in the Deonar protective home.

On Monday, while hearing the woman’s plea against the magistrate’s orders, additional sessions judge Mujibodeen S. Shaikh held the magistrate’s order illegal and incorrect, noting that voluntary sex work is not illegal and an adult woman should not be detained against her will.

“Keeping the applicant behind bars will amount to a violation of her fundamental rights. Every citizen deserves humanitarian treatment and lives her or his life with dignity,” the judge observed.

“The victim, being a citizen of this country, has the constitutional right to move anywhere as per her wish and she cannot be detained against her will when she has not committed any offence,” the judge added.