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In the case of Panchanan Padhi v. State of Orissa , the High Court of Orissa recognized the fact the punishment for drug trafficking is more than Sex Trafficking in India considering the latter is more heinous. The court in the case was looking into a bail application by a person accused for sex trafficking.
Justice SK Panigrahi in the judgement has highlighted a serious flaw and said that, “Though it involves clandestine and unlawful trafficking of girls but the law makers have missed the opportunity to prescribe a stringent punishment regime, even though the present offence is far more heinous than drug trafficking”.
The case was filed before the police after receiving information about a drug-trafficking ring following which an investigation was conducted. In a raid, following the investigation, the King-pin was arrested. The court opined that there was a prima facia case against the accused.
The court analyzed in detail the various provisions of law for Sex trafficking about with India and the International law applied. The Court noted that, “Unfortunately, despite the protection afforded by the Constitution, the stringent laws and large number of treaties and conventions, commercial sexual exploitation with its concomitant human rights abuse is expanding multi-fold. The human rights discourse is profoundly silent on this grave issue. Such exploitation is now not confined to conventional brothels, but is spreading everywhere including residential areas, hotels, clubs etc. as apparent in the present case.”
However, the court was constrained to grant bail based on very stringent terms and conditions while expressing it’s concern over doing so and putting safety of many others at risk. The Judge further added that, “There seems to be an all-pervasive puritan, moral, anti-prostitutuion posture of the government but in practice, there is a yawning gap between the law and its enforcement which results in abysmally low conviction rates.”
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