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Madras High Court Condemns Police For Treating Massage Parlours and Spa as Brothels
With increase in the cases of treating Spas, Massage Parlours as Brothels the Madras HC scolded the state police. Justice Venkatesh warned the police and said
“The more the power, the more must be restraint in using the power. If the Police is permitted to exercise their powers under the Act in this manner, it is possible for the Police to brand any Spa Centre or a Massage Parlour, as a brothel and…
If this power goes unchecked, Spa Centre or a Massage Parlour can be run only under the mercy of a Police Officer. For an extraneous consideration, the Police can brand any Spa or a Massage Centre as a brothel, and even if a brothel is being run in the name of a Spa or a Massage Centre, no action will be taken. This situation is neither good for the society nor to the Police force.”
Justice Venkatesh further said that the Police had no legal right to prevent a health spa from running it’s lawful business. He also stated that even if the service is being provided by the same gender or the opposite gender it cannot be termed as brothel or illegal without any strong evidence.
This all started when the police started conducting raids at different Massage Parlours across the state, where these raids were conducted without any strong evidence against any of the legally operating parlours. It is correct that police has legal right and power to stop any Immoral act under the Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act [ITPA], 1956, however this does not gives them right to prevent any person to conduct a lawful business under Article 19(1)g of the Constitution of India. He said that the state police and the authorities were earlier also warned for conducting such types of raids at such parlours without any strong evidence.
Referring to one of the cases, he said“the individual act of prostitution itself is not an offence& in Ratnamala case the SC has already laid down a principle that “modesty of a prostitute is entitled to equal protection, with that of any other woman & Section 15 of ITPA must be followed while conducting such raids which requires the raids to be carried out in the presence of 2 or more respectable inhabitants of the concerned locality.”
The court further quashed all the FIR’s in this matter on finding them as an exercise of legal abuse of the Executive powers.
