The New Indian Express News

'Child trafficking a deeply disturbing reality': SC lays down guidelines to evaluate evidence of victims

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Friday, in its landmark verdict, laid down guidelines on how courts must be sensitive and adhere to the evidence and testimony, while conducting court proceedings of minor victims of trafficking and prostitution. It also observed that child trafficking and commercial sexual exploitation a deeply disturbing realities in India. Upholding the conviction of a Bengaluru man and his wife for trafficking and sexually exploiting a minor girl, a two-judgeBench of the apex court, headed by Justice Manoj Misra and Justice Joymalya Bagchi, issued the guidelines. While relying on various judgments --Bai Radha versus State of Gujarat, and State of UT of Delhi versus Ram Singh (December 16, 2012, Delhi gangrape and murder case) -- the top court on Friday passed the verdict, which could be an eye opener for the courts dealing with such kind of victims. The top court passed the verdict after hearing an appeal filed by the convictK P Kirankumar alias Kiran against the state of Peenya Police. Itrefused to doubt the conviction -- earlier imposed by the trial court and High Court -- of the accused in the matter. The cases of child trafficking are not isolated aberrations but part of an entrenched pattern of organised exploitation that continues despite legislative safeguards. The judicial assessment of such cases must be informed by sensitivity to the lived realities of minor victims rather than rigid or hyper-technical standards of proof, said the apex court in its 16-page judgement, a copy accessed by TNIE noted. The SC -- while upholding the judgments of the Trial Court and the Karnataka High Court under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and the Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act, 1956 --cautioned against discarding the child victim's testimony over minor inconsistencies or stereotypical notions of conduct. The instant case lays bare the deeply disturbing reality of child trafficking and commercial sexual exploitation in India, an offence that strikes at the very foundations of dignity, bodily integrity and the State's constitutional promise of protection to every child against exploitation leading to moral and material abandonment, observed the top court. The SC, while asking the courts to be very sensitive while appreciating the evidence of a minor victim of trafficking, the Court ought to bear in mind: 1. Her inherent socio-economic and, at times, cultural vulnerability when the minor belongs to a marginalised or socially and culturally backward community. 2. Complex and layered structure of organised crime networks which operate at various levels of recruiting, transporting, harbouring and exploiting minor victims. Such organised crime activities operate as apparently independent verticals whose insidious intersections are conveniently veiled through subterfuges and deception to hoodwink innocent victims. The apex court directed that recounting and narration of the horrible spectre of sexual exploitation, even before law enforcement agencies and the Court, is an unpalatable experience leading to secondary victimisation. This is more acute when the victim is a minor and is faced with threats of criminal intimidation, fear of retaliation, social stigma and paucity of social and economic rehabilitation. In this backdrop, judicial appreciation of the victim's evidence must be marked by sensitivity and realism. If, on such nuanced appreciation, the version of the victim appears to be credible and convincing, a conviction may be maintained on her sole testimony. A victim of sex trafficking, particularly a minor, is not an accomplice and her deposition is to be given due regard and credence as that of an injured, the court said in the verdict.