NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Tuesday laid down a set of guidelines for all the States to ensure preventing child trafficking and offences arising out of it, after noting that any laxity showing to implement the directions would be taken seriously and be treated as contempt of court.
A bench of Justices J B Pardiwala and R Mahadevan issued the directions after hearing a batch of petitions against the bails granted to the accused involved in child trafficking in Uttar Pradesh's Varanasi.
"We want to convey a message to one and all more particularly the parents across the country that they should remain extremely vigilant and careful with their children. A slight carelessness or negligence or laxity on their part may prove to be extremely costly. The pain and agony which any parents may have to face when the child dies is different from the pain and agony that the parents may have to face when they lose their children to such gangs engaged in trafficking," the bench said.
The bench said that when the child dies, the parents may with passage of time resign to the will of the almighty but when the child is lost and not found they have to suffer the pain and agony for the rest of their life. It is worst than death. Therefore, we humbly urge to one and all to remain very cautious and vigilant.
Supreme Court Directs States to Complete Child Trafficking Trials Within Six Months
The court directed all the state HCs to issue necessary directions to lower courts to complete trial in child trafficking cases in six months.
The top court in its order directed all the State governments the detailed recommendations and study the report which was submitted by Bhartiya Institute and implement the same at the earliest. "High Courts across the country are directed to call for status of pending trial in child trafficking cases. Then directions shall be issued to complete trial in 6 months and also conduct day to day trial," the bench said.
"We direct the State Government to ensure that the trafficked children are admitted in schools in accordance with the provisions of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009 and continue to provide support for their education," the bench said.
The court added if any newborn infant is trafficked from any hospital, the immediate action against the hospital should be suspension of licence to run the hospital over and above other actions in accordance with law. When any lady comes to deliver her baby in any hospital, it is the responsibility of the administration of the hospital to protect the newborn infant in all respects.
This directions of the top court assumes significance as offences involving child trafficking cases takes years to come to a logical conclusion and the guidelines will try to resolve the pending cases in a time bound manner.
Varanasi Trafficking Case: SC Criticizes Allahabad HC and UP Govt for Mishandling Bail Orders
During the course of the anticipatory bail plea hearing of the accused on Tuesday, the apex court slammed both the Allahabad High Court and the Uttar Pradesh government for the manner in which they dealt with the matter. "The High Court dealt with bail applications callously and it led to many accused to abscond. These accused pose serious threat to society," the bench said.
The court said it was thoroughly disappointed how the State of UP handled this case and why no appeal was made.
The bench also slammed the Allahabad HC, as it granted conditional bail to some accused in the case.
"The police lost track of all accused persons. We are thoroughly disappointed how the State of UP handled this case," the bench observed.
The bench also questioned the UP government as to why no appeal was made by it before this court in the cases. There was no seriousness being shown in this case.
"Considering the serious nature of the crime and the modus operandi adopted by the accused persons we are of the view that the High Court should not have exercised its discretion in favour of the accused persons," the bench said.
The outcome of this callous approach on the part of the High Court has ultimately paved way for many accused persons to abscond and thereby put the trial in jeopardy. These accused persons are a big threat to the society wherever they are in the country, the court said.
The accused have exhibited a tendency of committing a particular nature of crime, namely, child trafficking. The least that was expected of the High Court while granting bail to all the accused persons was to impose a condition on each of them to mark their presence once in a week at the concerned police station so that the police can keep a check over the movements of all the accused persons. All that the High Court did was to direct the accused persons to remain present before the trial court. In none of the impugned orders there is a condition of marking presence at the concerned police station as a result, the police lost track of all these accused persons, the bench said.
