Supreme Court Directs Completion Of Child Trafficking Case Trials In 6 Months; Issues Directions To States On Handling Such Cases

While cancelling the bail of all accused persons allegedly involved in a large human trafficking racket of minor children, the Supreme Court today passed general directions to expedite the trial in such cases.The Court directed all High Courts to call for necessary information on the status of pending trials relating to child trafficking and subsequently issue a circular for the completion of trial within 6 months and submit a report to the Court. Also, the Court has directed for the implementation of the suggestions made in the study conducted by Bharatiya Institute of Research and Development (BIRD) on human trafficking by all States and High Courts. As per the BIRD's report, law enforcement officials should treat cases of missing children as abduction or trafficking until proven otherwise, as per the Supreme Court's directions issued in 2013.A bench of Justices JB Pardiwala and R. Mahadevan, while criticising the Allahabad High Court for granting bail subsequent to which the accused persons refused to attend the court proceedings and the callous attitude of the State of Uttar Pradesh for not applying for the cancellation of their bail, issued following general directions.BIRD report 1. All the State Governments across the country are directed to look into the report of BIRD dated 12.04.2023, more particularly the recommendations, as reproduced by us in para 34 of this judgment (extracted at the end of the report).2. All the State Governments are directed to study the entire report and start implementing each of the recommendations by working out appropriate modalities in that regard.Directions to all High Courts 3. We direct all the High Courts across the country to call for the necessary information as regards the status of the pending trials relating to child trafficking. Once each of the High Courts is able to collect the necessary data as regards the status of the trials, a circular thereafter shall be issued on its administrative side to all the concerned trial courts to complete the trials within a period of six months from the date of the circular and if need be, by conducting the trials on day-to-day basis. Each of the High Courts shall thereafter forward a report to this Court as regards the compliance of the directions contained in the circular.4. Non-compliance of our directions or any laxity of any nature in that regard on the part of any of the authorities shall be viewed very strictly and if need be, they shall be proceeded for contempt. The Court will hear the matter again in October 2025, for compliance.The copies of the judgment were directed to be sent to all High Courts and State Governments including Principal Secretary, Ministry of Home Affairs and Principal Secretary, Ministry of Women and Child Development, respectively. BIRD report, para 34 for implementation by State Governments:1. Law enforcement officials should treat cases of missing children as abduction or trafficking until proven otherwise as per Direction of The Supreme Court in 2013 and search for these people in every possible location. When children disappear, Law EAs should start the missing person's process, look into what happened, disseminate information, and conduct investigations, collaborating with other agencies as needed.2. About 31 percent Parent respondents reported that their children were working in hazardous industries- metallurgical industries, coal, fertilizers, mining, chemical & petrochemicals, cement and firecracker workshops. We recommend that provisions of The Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection) of Children Act, 2000: and The Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, 1986: should be implemented in letter and sprits. Violators should be punished. Regular check of hazardous industries/units must be carried out by the Labour Inspectors.3. The idea of community policing needs to be made more widely known in order for people and non-governmental organisations to get involved in policing to stop and combat the trafficking of women and children.4. Anti-Human Trafficking units (AHTUs) are currently under resourced as well as undertrained. There is an urgent need for additional Capacity Building of AHTUs and Providing them adequate funds and infrastructure because “the police lack the means to undertake a thorough investigation if the person is trafficked from another state.5. To address the issue and protect the rights of victims and survivors, comprehensive legislation is required due to the underreporting of human trafficking instances and gaps in other laws. For law enforcement organisations, there is a need for an extensive training and capacity-building programme on the topic of human trafficking. It should be made mandatory for AHTU or the Police to report every case of human trafficking.6. We advise the police to use the following strategies to win the trust of victims: Assuring victims that they are not the subject of an inquiry Victims deserve to be treated with respect and decency....

Supreme Court Directs Completion Of Child Trafficking Case Trials In 6 Months; Issues Directions To States On Handling Such Cases

Gursimran Kaur Bakshi

Tags